Electromagnetic inhibition of inflamatory cells

描述（由申请人提供）：生物磁疗法是一种利用磁场治疗疾病的替代医学形式。虽然为古希腊人所知，但它从未在西方医学中取得主流地位。然而，多年来，在非专业媒体上一直有持续的报道，以及现代同行评审的医学期刊上的许多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，作为一个整体，除了使用脉冲磁场来促进骨折不愈合的愈合，以及在经颅磁刺激作为精神疾病的治疗，这些报告通常是不令人信服的。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，我们已经建立了一种机制，并且以可再现的方式在真实的时间中证明了极化的和能动的免疫细胞如何对非常弱的（约0.0001伏/米）超低频（约0.1-0.05 Hz）脉冲电场敏感。我们还证明，弱磁场可以用来诱导这样的电场。此外，我们已经在体外证明，磁感应脉冲电场可以灭活炎性免疫细胞，这表明了一种合理的方法，如何生物磁疗法可以用于治疗炎症性疾病。因此，在本提案中，我们的目标是将我们的体外发现扩展到动物模型系统中的体内竞技场。特别地，我们将严格地测试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性免疫细胞失活。我们的长期目标是将生物磁疗法建立在基于生理学证据的基础上，并将我们的初步工作转化为人类炎症性疾病的生物磁疗法，使其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.