Nanoparticles are new tools in medicine.

“Scientists have uncovered an unexpected way immune cells may accelerate nerve damage in late-stage ALS. Credit: Stock” (SciTechDaily, Scientists Discover Immune Cells Are Eating Living Neurons in ALS). This is one threat to failed immunotherapy. If. The immune cell selects the wrong cells for attack. That can cause terrible consequences. 

Nanoparticles can boost things like immunotherapy. They can mark cells for the immune system. In those cases, the nanoparticle triggers an immune response that prompts immune cells to attack a specific cell type. The problem is: How can researchers be sure? That the nanoparticle travels to the right cells? Can the solution be this? The nanoparticle is in a nutrient particle that only a certain cell type uses. This drives the nanoparticle into the cell. 

The nanoparticle can transport a small DNA bite into those targeted cells.  And the DNA bite. It can make the cell call immune cells to attack that cell. DNA bite can order the cell to die. It can happen. By. Shutting down its energy production. The DNA bite can also order the cell to produce chemical markers that make immune cells destroy it. 

The big problem is that If. Those nanoparticles mark the wrong cells. That can cause a terrible situation. ALS syndrome. That caused Stephen Hawking’s condition. Caused because immune cells attack the body's own nervous system. This means ALS is an immune disease. So, that means ALS is nervous rheumatism. We can use ALS syndrome as an example. What could happen if the immunotherapy fails? In the worst case, those immune cells attack vital tissues.  

A key element in immune therapy is to find how to enable immune cells to recognize the right cells. 

Maybe. Nanoparticles that carry so-called TAM (Tumor-associated Macrophage)  activators can open a path to effective immunotherapy. But ALS is warning what happens if that therapy goes wrong. 

“Immune cells, called microglia, rely on TAM receptors, a family of proteins that help the body recognize and remove dying cells. The new work shows that in the spinal cords of mice with ALS, this system can instead direct microglia toward motor neurons that are still alive.” (SciTechDaily, Scientists Discover Immune Cells Are Eating Living Neurons in ALS)

Researchers think that the solution is in so-called TAM receptors. Those receptors are proteins. Those receptors send signals that the cell is dying. That activates immune cells called microglia. TAM receptors also play a key role in cancer. If. Those proteins are not activated. That causes the formation of zombie cells. And the bad thing is that. If. TAM proteins activate the wrong cells. That can cause immune cells to destroy those cells. 

Nanoparticles: they can also act as medicine. Nanoparticles like two-layer fullerenes with acoustic or magnetic resonators can be transported into target cells. Then acoustic or magnetic waves will be targeted at those particles. This causes resonance and bubble formation. When the resonance ends. The bubble formation ends. This makes it possible to give highly accurate treatment. 

But those particles can be very dangerous in the wrong hands. Nanoparticles. They can close things like blood vessels. They can make those bubbles into blood vessels, which can save lives. But the same systems. They can turn into weapons. Nanotechnology can make immune cells attack the important cells. 

https://scitechdaily.com/a-double-punch-nanoparticle-could-reveal-and-destroy-brain-cancer-cells/

https://scitechdaily.com/researchers-discover-a-gut-microbe-metabolite-that-supercharges-cancer-immunotherapy/

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-immune-cells-are-eating-living-neurons-in-als/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microglia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumor-associated_macrophage