A Simple Explanation Of Liposomal Clodronate

By Mari Orr


There is a new experimental treatment that has been developed for an array of autoimmune diseases. This treatment is called liposomal clodronate. While this treatment has thus far only been tried on mice, it has produced promising results. Anytime you talk about diseases and cures, the terminology you use can become dense jargon. However it is possible to understand this treatment in simple terms.

A disease called Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia, or AIHA for short, affects people by destroying their red blood cells. People need red blood cells to live. They distribute oxygen from the lungs to all of the cells in your body. When AIHA strikes, the disease instructs some of your white blood cells, known as macrophages, to attack your own body.

The word macrophage is made up of two Greek words: macro- which means large, and phage, which means to eat. So these 'big eaters' begin consuming the red blood cells in the sick person's body. This is bad because the fewer red blood cells you have, the more difficult it is for your body to get oxygen.

So scientists have developed a class of chemicals called liposomal clodronates which stops the macrophages from eating your red blood cells. They use a Trojan effect, like the Trojan horse that smuggled soldiers into the city of Troy. These clodronates smuggle chemicals inside of the 'big eaters' and destroy them from the inside. This stops them from eating your red blood cells and allows you to get the oxygen you need.

This, however, is not a permanent solution. Whatever the disease is that tells the big eaters to start consuming red blood cells has to be identified and then stopped. Macrophages are not bad cells. They are your own white blood cells. When you are healthy, they protect you against diseases. The AIHA disease somehow commandeers them and turns them against your body.

When someone gets a cold, they take an antihistamine in order to treat the symptoms of their cold so that they can rest and recover from the disease itself. That is like what liposomal clodronate does. It lets doctors treat the symptoms of AIHA so that they then have time to look for and stop the disease itself.




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