Electromagnetic inhibition of inflamatory cells

描述(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获得主流地位。然而，多年来，非专业媒体一直在报道，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连骨折的愈合，以及将经颅磁刺激作为治疗精神疾病的方法外，这些报告通常都不令人信服。一个主要问题是，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，以解释它们所带来的各种治疗益处。最近，我们已经建立了一种机制，并以实时可重现的方式演示了极化和运动的免疫细胞如何对非常弱的(约0.0001伏/米)超低频(约0.10-0.05赫兹)脉冲电场敏感。我们还证明了弱磁场可以用来产生这样的电场。此外，我们在体外证明了磁感应脉冲电场可以灭活炎性免疫细胞，这为生物磁疗如何用于炎症性疾病的治疗提供了一种合理的方法。因此，在这项建议中，我们的目标是将我们的体外发现扩展到动物模型系统的体内领域。特别是，我们将严格测试在体外有效的那种超低频脉冲磁场是否可以在小鼠胶原蛋白诱导的关节炎模型中灭活炎症免疫细胞。我们的长期目标是将生物磁疗建立在坚实的证据基础上，并将我们的初步工作转化为人类炎症性疾病的生物磁疗，使其成为当代医学实践中不可或缺的一部分。

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.