Thursday, December 6, 2012

The Role Of Liposomal Clodronate In Macrophage Suppression

By Rosalind Landry


The immune system of a person plays a vital function in his life. It protects you from various diseases allowing a person to live with minimal discomfort. Your immune system wards off agents that are harmful to man's health. There are times though that it is weakened and diseases invade ones body. During these times you will have to rely on interventions that are able to help improve your body's defenses. There are several measures that you can take so that you are able to improve health. There are cases though that you will have to suppress your immune function and liposomal clodronate is one of several ways to do so.

A well functioning immune system possess the ability to identify cells that are your own and cells that are foreign to your body. Your body's defenses will be able to coexist with cells that are known to them. When cells that are foreign to its host are encountered, an attack is launched that keeps those cells from harming the host's body.

One example of foreign tissue are viruses that could cause different diseases. There are also treatments that the immune system may reject such as those in transplanted tissues. This is because the tissues that are of another person's carry markers which your immune system will not recognize as being your own.

There are also times when the body will attack its own. This is what happens with autoimmune diseases. The body's defenses will mistake its own tissues as a foreign cell and launch defenses on it. It could be caused by some other disease or medication that predisposes you to such or could be genetic.

An organism will be protected against infections through the layered defenses of the immune system. Physical barriers are present that will protect ones body from pathogens. If said barriers get breached, your body's innate immune response provides it with immediate response. The response it produces is nonspecific. If this will be insufficient, innate immune response triggers the action of adaptive immune system which provides a specific response for every pathogen. That response is then retained so that a faster and a stronger response is possible when the same pathogen is again encountered.

An important component of your immune system are macrophages. They are a type of white blood cells that functions in both innate and adaptive immunity. Their role will be engulfing pathogens and then digesting them.

Liposomes are artificially prepared vesicles that are made up by a lipid bilayer. They are used as vehicles for administration of nutrients and drugs. They are used in encapsulating molecules that are strongly hydrophilic like clodronate. Free clodronate does not easily pass bilayers of liposomes so that after it is delivered it would not be escaping the cell. Once the phospholipids are destroyed the drug is then released into the targeted cell. The cell is then killed through apoptosis.

This is helpful for an effective elimination of macrophages. In so doing, there will be no cells to attack the tissues that are introduced into the body with intent. They will also eliminate the cells that are attacking your own body.

Such substance is useful in medicine. Steps are made so that people are given better options at treatment. One such option is liposomal clodronate.




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