{"id":147,"date":"2011-06-01T21:55:08","date_gmt":"2011-06-01T21:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carlyhodes.wordpress.com\/?p=147"},"modified":"2011-06-01T21:55:08","modified_gmt":"2011-06-01T21:55:08","slug":"breaching-barriers-reaching-remedies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carlyhodes.com\/?p=147","title":{"rendered":"Breaching barriers, reaching remedies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlocking new treatment potential for major diseases from MS to Alzheimer\u2019s to HIV<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In her first few years at Cornell, Dr. Margaret Bynoe rocked the world of immunology with major advances that are already changing how diseases are treated. Some were so unconventional that it took time to convince her peers they could work. \u201cI\u2019ve been told things couldn\u2019t be done,\u201d said Bynoe, \u201cand that I was only \u2018challenging dogma.\u2019 But that\u2019s how science builds knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bynoe knew she was on to something when she developed a novel treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) in mice, an auto-immune disease that affects the nervous system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe immune system is like a child,\u201d she said. \u201cIt learns as it matures. If it learns improperly it starts attacking the body. In MS it targets myelin, the protective coating insulating nerves. \u00a0To stop this we need a way to reeducate an adult immune system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Old dogs struggle with new tricks, but they are less likely to attack friends when they are properly introduced. Bynoe created patches soaked in myelin, applying \u00a0them to the skin of mice genetically predisposed to MS. \u201cTheir immune systems learned to recognize myelin as friend, not foe. We successfully abolished the disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she submitted a grant to develop this technique into a human treatment, reviewers said it would never work. Several years later, Bynoe\u2019s work inspired a group of Polish researchers to use her technique on humans, significantly reducing symptoms in 80% of MS patients in their trial.<\/p>\n

The ability to re-imagine paradigms helped Bynoe discover another new technique with the potential to shape the course of treatments for MS and other major neurological ailments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile investigating Adenosine, a crucial compound in many bodily processes, we discovered that it regulates the blood-brain barrier, which prevents most immune cells and foreign substances from entering the brain,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

On the bloodstream highway, the brain is a restricted exit, but sometimes pathogenic particles sneak through its molecular gate.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiseases that infiltrate the brain become difficult to treat. If we could regulate the barrier safely we could put a damper on diseases like Alzheimer\u2019s, cancer, and HIV-AIDS, by delivering drugs directly to afflicted cells. We could also potentially close the gate to stop rogue immune responses like those that cause MS. \u00a0Adenosine seems to be the gatekeeper. We think we have the key.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using caffeine to block Adenosine from opening the gate to immune cells, Bynoe stopped MS-like symptoms in mice. Her lab\u2019s next goal is to use Adenosine to get treatments past the barrier in mice with Alzheimer\u2019s. Using various models in collaboration with other scientists, they plan to investigate barrier-breaching treatments that could one day tackle HIV-AIDS.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took over a year of rigorous experimentation to confirm it works,\u201d said Bynoe. \u201cNow we hope to expand to treating larger animals.\u201d
\nPartnering with entrepreneurs and investors, Bynoe helped found a growing company driven by her research. They are currently working to develop tools that will treat a wide array of human neurologic diseases.<\/p>\n

~~~<\/p>\n

‘Scopes Magazine
\nJuly 2011<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unlocking new treatment potential for major diseases from MS to Alzheimer\u2019s to HIV In her first few years at Cornell, Dr. Margaret Bynoe rocked the world of immunology with major advances that are already changing how diseases are treated. Some were so unconventional that it took time to convince her peers they could work. \u201cI\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,13,17,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scopes-magazine","category-medicine","category-profiles","category-research"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carlyhodes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carlyhodes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carlyhodes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carlyhodes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carlyhodes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/carlyhodes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carlyhodes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carlyhodes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carlyhodes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}