A new centre, funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), and led by the University of Birmingham will develop innovative therapies aimed at restoring immune balance and tissue health.
Lasting freedom from disease
Its ambition is to achieve lasting freedom from disease and transform the lives of people who face debilitating immune-mediated diseases (IMIDs) throughout their lives.
These conditions, including inflammatory arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune liver disease and Sjögren’s disease can affect children and adults.
These arise when the body’s own immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissues, including the:
- joints
- gut
- skin
- eyes
- liver
- salivary glands
The resulting inflammation can cause irreversible tissue and organ damage, chronic pain and lifelong disability.
It is estimated that over four million people in the UK suffer from IMIDs.
While a single figure tracking the cost to the NHS of all IMIDs combined does not exist, inflammatory bowel disease alone costs the NHS up to £900 million each year.
Currently no cures
Despite major advances in treatment, there are currently no cures for these conditions, and many people require lifelong therapy to control inflammation and prevent further damage.
Caitlin, based in Birmingham, and who was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) 16 years ago, said:
I’ve lived with psoriasis for as long as I can remember and later diagnosed with psoriatic JIA at 11.
When you’re first diagnosed, they tell you there is no cure. It can be managed with medication and, while you may experience periods of inactive disease or remission, there’s always the possibility of a flare.
Although I’m fortunate that my condition is now well controlled with medication that suppresses my immune system, I face the possibility of taking a potent drug, with significant risks, for the rest of my life. I can’t imagine ever feeling comfortable having a child while taking this medication, for example.
So, to be talking about the potential for this funding to find a cure is truly incredible. It could change lives and mean fewer people have to experience the challenges I faced because of chronic autoimmune disease.
Develop new treatments
Now the new MRC Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) in Restorative Immunology, led by a team of investigators from the UK and Japan, will look to transform how these diseases are treated.
Over the next 14 years and backed by £50 million of MRC investment, the CoRE in Restorative Immunology will bring together a team of leading scientists, clinicians and patient research partners.
They will work together to understand what causes these diseases and develop new treatments targeting their causes, rather than simply controlling their symptoms.
Collaborative effort
The team brings together experts from eight universities, including:
- University of Birmingham
- Kyoto University
- Newcastle University
- University College London
- University of Bristol
- University of Cambridge
- The University of Glasgow
- University of Oxford
They will collaborate alongside charities, public engagement organisations and industry, combining skills and perspectives to improve the lives of patients and train the next generation of researchers.
Restore lasting health and wellbeing
Professor Adam P Croft, Arthritis UK Chair of Rheumatology and Director of the MRC CoRE in Restorative Immunology, said:
While remarkable advances have been made in the treatment of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases over the past two decades, the focus has largely been on controlling inflammation to relieve symptoms and prevent damage to tissues. This approach has improved the lives of many patients, but it does not address the underlying mechanisms that cause and sustain disease.
Our patients are clear: they want more than lifelong disease management – they want the possibility of cure. New technologies now permit us to study tissues at unprecedented resolution, revealing how healthy tissue becomes diseased and identifying the cells and molecular pathways that drive this process.
Combined with the development of therapies capable of precisely targeting these mechanisms, this creates a realistic opportunity to move beyond lifelong disease control towards treatments delivered with curative intent – with the ultimate goal of restoring lasting health and wellbeing.
Cutting-edge technologies
Using cutting-edge technologies, the CoRE will focus on three key steps:
- understanding what keeps tissues healthy and why disease develops
- uncovering why inflammation fails to resolve in some people and not others
- developing new therapies that can restore both the immune system and affected tissues to a healthy, disease-free state
Creating a detailed map
First, the team will create a detailed map of what happens inside tissues when disease develops compared to health.
They will look at how different cells are organised into ‘neighbourhoods’, how they communicate with each other, and how these relationships change as disease takes hold.
This will help researchers identify the changes that cause disease and the processes that allow it to persist.
Build models of tissues
Second, the team will use this knowledge to build models of human tissues in the laboratory.
These models will enable researchers to understand how harmful interactions between cells develop and test new ways to disrupt them, while restoring the networks that are essential for healthy tissue function.
Develop precision treatments
Finally, the team will use these discoveries to develop precision treatments designed to reset the immune system and promote deep healing of damaged tissues.
The aim is to develop treatments that can restore tissue health more quickly and effectively, potentially reducing or eliminating the need for lifelong medication.
Opportunity to develop curative treatments
With advances in mapping the different types of cells found in diseased human tissues and the growing range of precision therapies, the researchers believe there is an opportunity to develop long-lasting, potentially curative treatments.
Scientific leadership
Science Minister Chris McDonald said:
This is what scientific leadership is all about, putting our knowledge and expertise together to work towards discoveries which can make a real difference for people’s lives.
This groundbreaking research will help give millions of people with immune-mediated diseases some reassurance that our world-leading scientists are working to understand these diseases and the hope that we may one day be able to find a cure.
Moving beyond treating symptoms
Dr Ceri Williams, Executive Director of Challenge Led Portfolio at MRC, said:
MRC Centres of Research Excellence are designed to tackle some of the most important challenges in biomedical research through sustained, ambitious and collaborative science. By doing so, they contribute to UKRI’s mission to advance knowledge, improve lives and drive growth across the UK.
The MRC CoRE in Restorative Immunology exemplifies that vision. Moving beyond treating symptoms to achieve lasting remission or cure will require a deeper understanding of how healthy tissues become disrupted and how those processes can be reversed.
By bringing together expertise from across disciplines, sectors and countries to tackle these fundamental questions, this centre has the potential to transform our understanding of inflammatory disease and accelerate the development of treatments that deliver lasting benefits for patients.
Third wave of CoREs
The MRC CoRE in Restorative Immunology is part of the third wave of CoREs MRC has announced, with further CoREs having started work on:
- MRC and British Heart Foundation CoRE in Advanced Cardiac Therapies
- MRC CoRE in Therapeutic Genomics
- MRC CoRE in Restorative Neural Dynamics
- MRC CoRE in Exposome Immunology
- MRC CoRE in Clinical Trial Innovation in partnership with National Institute for Health and Care Research
- MRC CoRE in Mitochondrial Genome Therapeutics