Electromagnetic inhibition of inflamatory cells

描述（由申请人提供）：生物磁疗是一种利用磁场治疗疾病的替代医学形式。虽然古希腊人知道它，但它从未在西方医学中占据主流地位。然而，多年来，在非专业媒体上一直有报道，在现代同行评议的医学期刊上也有大量的病例和对照研究，表明磁场对治疗多种疾病的有效性。不幸的是，总的来说，除了使用脉冲磁场促进骨不愈合和经颅磁刺激治疗精神疾病外，这些报道一般都不令人信服。一个主要的问题是，从来没有一个普遍接受的理论框架来解释磁场如何与活组织相互作用，以解释所有归因于它们的各种治疗益处。最近，我们建立了一种机制，并以可重复的方式实时证明了极化和运动免疫细胞如何对非常弱的（约0.0001伏/米）超低频（约0.1-0.05赫兹）脉冲电场敏感。我们还证明了可以利用弱磁场来感应这种电场。此外，我们已经在体外证明了磁诱导脉冲电场可以使炎症免疫细胞失活，这为如何利用生物磁疗治疗炎症性疾病提供了一种合理的方法。因此，在本提案中，我们的目标是将我们的体外研究结果扩展到动物模型系统的体内领域。特别是，我们将严格测试这种在体外有效的超低频脉冲磁场是否可以在小鼠胶原诱导的关节炎模型中使炎症免疫细胞失活。我们的长期目标是将生物磁疗建立在健全的基于证据的生理基础上，并将我们的初步工作转化为人类炎症性疾病的生物磁疗可以成为当代医学实践的一个组成部分。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Biomagnetic therapy is an alternative form of medicine which utilizes magnetic fields to treat disease. Although known to the ancient Greeks, it has never achieved mainstream status in western medicine. Nevertheless, over the years there have been persistent accounts in the lay press, as well as numerous case and controlled studies in modern peer-reviewed medical journals suggesting the effectiveness of magnetic fields to treat a multitude of ailments. Unfortunately, taken as a whole, with exceptions of the use of pulsed magnetic fields to promote healing of non-union bone fractures, and in transcranial magnetic stimulation as a treatment of psychiatric disorders, these reports are generally unconvincing. A major problem is that there has never been a universally acceptable theoretical framework to explain how magnetic fields might interact with living tissue to account for all of the diverse therapeutic benefits attributed to them. Recently we have established a mechanism, and demonstrated in a reproducible manner in real time, how polarized and motile immune cells are sensitive to very weak approximately 0.0001 volts/meter) ultra-low frequency (approximately 0.1-0.05 Hz) pulsed electric fields. We have also demonstrated that weak magnetic fields can be utilized to induce such electric fields. Furthermore, we have shown in vitro that magnetically induced pulsed electric fields can deactivate inflammatory immune cells, suggesting a rational method as to how biomagnetic therapy can be utilized in the treatment of inflammatory disease. Thus in this proposal it is our objective to extend our in vitro findings, to the in vivo arena in an animal model system. In particular we will critically test whether ultra- ow frequency pulsed magnetic fields of the kind that are effective in vitro, can deactivate inflammatory immune cells in a mouse collagen induced arthritis model. It is our long term goal to put biomagnetic therapy on a sound evidence based physiological foundation, and to translate our preliminary work so that biomagnetic therapy of human inflammatory disease can become an integral part of contemporary medical practice.