Engineered extracellular vesicles as a revolutionary inflammation resolving therapy

进化治疗公司是从阿斯顿大学剥离出来的公司，该公司的愿景是通过开发一种革命性的新疗法来改变一系列炎症性疾病的治疗方法。炎症是一种正常的防御机制，由免疫系统用来帮助防止感染和修复损伤造成的损害。然而，只有当反应被关闭，感染或受损的组织恢复正常时，炎症的好处才能实现，这一过程被称为消退。为什么这很重要？未能控制炎症反应可能导致慢性炎症，是许多炎症性疾病的根本原因，特别是无法愈合的(慢性)伤口。未愈合的伤口在所谓的“炎症阶段”通常会停滞不前。在这个阶段，先天免疫系统应该促进修复反应，但不能。转换到解决阶段依赖于免疫细胞(已经完成了他们的保护工作)被移除。为了清除这些不需要的细胞，这些细胞死亡，在这样做的过程中，它们释放出被称为细胞外小泡(EVS)的小膜袋。我们实验室的开创性研究表明，这些电动汽车携带特定的生物分子，有助于控制炎症和激活组织修复反应的信号。我们利用这些知识设计了我们自己的电动汽车，这些电动汽车装载了这些炎症调节生物分子，以便通过推动免疫系统再次恢复正常功能来“启动”这个停滞不前的过程。无法愈合的伤口现在已经成为我们医疗体系中的一大危机。据估计，NHS每年管理380万名创伤患者，每年NHS的费用为83亿GB，其中56亿GB与管理不可愈合的伤口有关(与管理肥胖的费用相同)。无法愈合的伤口治疗主要依赖伤口敷料，领先的伤口护理临床医生一致认为，现在迫切需要先进的治疗方法。我们的创新旨在创造一种范式转变，从被动伤口管理转向主动伤口治疗。如果成功，我们的疗法可以减少患者的相当大的临床和经济负担，从而帮助提高他们的生活质量，同时还有助于降低全球医疗保健系统长期治疗的高昂成本。值得注意的是，我们在治疗不可愈合伤口方面概述的好处，可能在未来应用于其他炎症性疾病。

EVolution Therapeutics is spin-out company from Aston University which has a vision to transform the treatment of a wide range of inflammatory diseases, through development of a revolutionary new therapy.Inflammation is a normal defence mechanism used by the immune system to help protect from infection and to repair damage caused by injury. However, the benefits of inflammation are only realised when the response is turned off and the infected or damaged tissue is returned to normal, in a process known as resolution. Why is this important? A failure to control inflammatory responses can lead to chronic inflammation and is the root cause of many of the inflammatory diseases, notably non-healing (chronic) wounds.Non-healing wounds often become stalled in their healing in the so-called 'inflammatory phase', the phase where the innate immune system should promote a repair response but does not. The switch to the resolution phase relies on immune cells (that have done their protective job) being removed. To allow their removal these unwanted cells die, and as they do so, they release small membrane bags called extracellular vesicles (EVs). Pioneering research in our lab has shown that these EVs carry specific biomolecules that help to control inflammation and signal to activate the tissue repair response. We have used this knowledge to design our own EVs, which are loaded with these inflammation-modifying biomolecules, in order to 'kick-start' this stalled process by pushing the immune system toward normal function again.Non-healing wounds have now become a major crisis within our healthcare system. It is estimated that 3.8 million patients are managed by the NHS for wounds each year at an annual NHS cost of £8.3 billion, of which £5.6 billion is associated with managing non-healing wounds (the same cost as managing obesity). Non-healing wound treatment predominantly relies upon wound dressings and leading wound care clinicians agree that there is now a vital need for advanced therapies.Our innovation aims to create a paradigm shift away from passive wound management and towards active wound treatment. If successful, our therapy could limit the considerable clinical and economic burdens to patients, thereby helping to improve their quality of life, whilst also helping reduce the high cost attached to long term treatment for healthcare systems worldwide. Significantly, the benefits outlined for our therapy in the treatment of non-healing wounds, may potentially be applied to other inflammatory diseases in the future.