How «primitive antibodies» work, the first line of defense of our body – breaking latest news

The review on the molecules of the drug has been published in the New England Journal of Medicineinnate immunity edited by Alberto Mantovaniscientific director of Humanitas and professor emeritus of Humanitas University, and by Cecilia Garlanda, head of the Experimental Immunopathology laboratory of Humanitas and professor of Humanitas University. The team, which in recent decades has led to discoveries such as that of pentraxin 3 (PTX3), was called to take stock of the knowledge of this class of molecules and the potential they offer for the diagnosis and treatment of infections, autoimmune diseases and neurodegenerative.

The premium innate immunity molecules they were isolated almost a century ago and today they are used in the clinic as diagnostic indicators and prognostics of inflammation: their level in the blood, for example, makes it possible to measure the inflammatory state and predict the evolution of the disease. Thanks to the research conducted in recent decades, and in particular to some studies carried out by researchers at the IRCCS Istituto Clinico Humanitas, we now know that these molecules, once activated by encountering a pathogen, play a leading role: they fight the infectionrecognizing the intruder, signaling him and hindering his action as “primitive antibodies”, and coordinate tissue regeneration, because the war that the body unleashes against viruses, fungi or bacteria, like any conflict, leaves behind many damage.

“We felt it was important to pool all the knowledge on the molecules of our first line of defense for the benefit of doctors and future generations of clinicians, who find themselves using them for diagnosis and therapy, sometimes without having full perception of their potential – explains the prof. Alberto Mantovani -. In fact, the molecules of innate immunity are the protagonists of some important defense actions when the organism is under inflammatory attack, as occurs in SEPS or in the case of major trauma, but also neurodegenerative or autoimmune diseases. Using an image taken from the war context, we could say that this class of molecules “subtracts material from the enemy” to direct the body’s efforts towards the production of heavy defense means and the reconstruction of what is “under the rubble” of the inflammation. Actions that leave a trace and, if well measured, can guide the action of doctors”.

“The molecules of innate immunity are a well-established clinical diagnostic tool: their level in the blood, as Covid-19 has also demonstrated, allows us to measure the inflammatory state and has great diagnostic and prognostic value for many infectious diseases. inflammatory or autoimmune – continues Professor Cecilia Garlanda -. However, the research data of recent years tell us that these molecules can do much more: not only as precision prognostic markers, but as therapeutic targets that are still largely underexplored».

The review in the New England Journal of Medicine adds to the three that Professor Mantovani wrote for Nature and The Lancet and which today represent a firm point of consensus on the discipline.