News Release

Are some people more likely to develop adverse reactions to nanoparticle-based medicines?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

<i>Nucleic Acid Therapeutics</i>

image: Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly in print and online that focuses on cutting-edge basic research, therapeutic applications, and drug development using nucleic acids or related compounds to alter gene expression. The Journal is under the editorial leadership of Editor-in-Chief Bruce A. Sullenger, PhD, Duke Translational Research Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, and Executive Editor Graham C. Parker, PhD. Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is the official journal of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society (http://www.oligotherapeutics.org/). Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website. view more 

Credit: ©Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, January 28, 2016--The complement system, the human body's first line of defense against blood-borne intruders, is blamed for infusion-related reactions to nanomedicines, but the conventional models used to predict the risk of cardiopulmonary side effects in response to nanopharmaceuticals might not well represent what actually occurs in humans, according to an article in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free for download on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website until March 1, 2016.

S. Moein Moghimi, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, questions the validity of pig and sheep models to predict the risk of infusion-related reactions to nanoparticle-based medicines in humans. In the article "Complement Propriety and Conspiracy in Nanomedicine: Perspective and a Hypothesis", the author proposes that some individuals may be highly sensitive to nanoparticles due to a particular liver or lung disorder or a predisposition to liver or lung disease. Future studies should compare human lung tissue from patients with and without liver and inflammatory lung disease to explore the role of the complement system in nanopharmaceutical-related infusion reactions. In addition, a more realistic and predictive model for examining the risk of cardiopulmonary side effects associate with nanomedicines may be a rat with cirrhosis of the liver, suggests Dr. Moghimi.

"We are acutely aware of the need for carefully designed and conducted clinical trials to be properly informed by the best available evidence from in vitro and in vivo models. Nucleic Acid Therapeutics encourages and welcomes opinion pieces as exemplified by Dr. Moghimi's contribution that help facilitate safe translation to the clinic," says Executive Editor Graham C. Parker, PhD, The Carman and Ann Adams Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, MI.

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About the Journal

Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly in print and online that focuses on cutting-edge basic research, therapeutic applications, and drug development using nucleic acids or related compounds to alter gene expression. The Journal is under the editorial leadership of Editor-in-Chief Bruce A. Sullenger, PhD, Duke Translational Research Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, and Executive Editor Graham C. Parker, PhD. Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is the official journal of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website.

About the Society

The Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society is an open, non-profit forum to foster academia- and industry-based research and development of oligonucleotide therapeutics. The society brings together the expertise from different angles of oligonucleotide research to create synergies and to bring the field of oligonucleotides to its full therapeutic potential.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Human Gene Therapy, ASSAY and Drug Development Technologies, Applied In Vitro Toxicology, and DNA and Cell Biology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.


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