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Our B cells assist stop us from getting sick. Their job is to make antibodies, immune system proteins that battle off viruses and different overseas invaders. And so they make a lot<\/em> of antibodies\u2014hundreds of them each second. What if these antibody factories could possibly be harnessed to make different issues the physique wants?<\/p>\n That\u2019s the concept behind a trial launched by Seattle-based biotech firm Immusoft. The corporate introduced immediately that its scientists have genetically programmed a affected person\u2019s B cells and put them again in his physique in an effort to deal with illness. It\u2019s the primary time engineered B cells have been examined in an individual.<\/p>\n The affected person has a genetic dysfunction generally known as mucopolysaccharidosis kind I, or MPS I. His physique doesn\u2019t produce a necessary enzyme that helps to interrupt down long-chain sugars inside cells. With out this enzyme, these sugars construct up within the eyes, coronary heart, bones, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n The results are life-threatening. Sufferers have cloudy eyes, respiratory issues, cognitive points, and enlarged organs. These with essentially the most extreme type of the illness die in childhood. Others might reside to their twenties or thirties.<\/p>\n Sufferers are at present handled with weekly infusions of the enzyme their physique lacks. The remedy have to be given for the whole thing of a affected person\u2019s life. Sometimes, a gene known as IDUA<\/em> offers directions for making this enzyme, however folks with MPS I’ve a mutation on this gene. Immusoft\u2019s intention is to override this downside by prompting an individual\u2019s B cells to make the enzyme as a substitute. B cells appealed to Immusoft due to their skill to pump out a lot of proteins. If an individual\u2019s B cells might present a steady provide of this enzyme, it might eradicate the necessity for normal infusions.<\/p>\n Sean Ainsworth, CEO of Immusoft, says the preliminary affected person is doing properly after receiving the experimental remedy in mid-November. \u201cThus far, so good,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Researchers on the firm collected the affected person\u2019s B cells utilizing a machine that removes blood, separates out a specific part, then returns the remaining to circulation. There are billions of B cells within the physique; Immusoft makes use of solely a portion. \u201cThe physique is continually regenerating and producing new B cells,\u201d Ainsworth says.<\/p>\n To get the B cells to supply the lacking enzyme along with antibodies, scientists had so as to add new genetic directions to them within the lab. They packaged these directions right into a transposon, a DNA sequence that may naturally combine right into a cell\u2019s genome utilizing a cut-and-paste mechanism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n