Nanotherapy reduces plaque buildup in mouse arteries

  1. a nanotube is created that contains a chemical compound (SHP1i) that inhibits the the "don't eat me" (antiphagocytic) signal of plaque.
  2. These nanotubes are engineered to be taken up by white blood cells.
  3. White blood cells tend to be more present at areas of inflammation (such as plaque), which in turn increases the chance that the chemical compound mentioned above will be released in areas where plaque is present.
  4. This presence of nanotube-loaded white blood cells at areas of plaque will turn off the antiphagocytic signals of all cells in this area,
  5. which induces plaque (and all other antiphagocytic cells in the area) to be removed through traditional cellular activity.

Assuming what I said above is correct, what I still don't understand:

  - How do the nanotubes bind to the white blood cells? Is there a specific technique to achieve this?
  - If I understand correctly, the chemical compound (SHP1i) removes antiphagocytic signals indiscriminately, which causes issues with toxicity of most therapies that attempt to use this technique without tightly controlling delivery (because organs might become a target of white blood cells). What happens however if a patient has other areas of inflammation? Does this exclude patients with auto-immune diseases from benefiting from these approaches, for example?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Other sources: [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41565-019-0619-3 (Original article)

Nanotherapy reduces plaque buildup in mouse arteries

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