I looked on the Qu web site. It talks a little bit about how it works, and has some pictures of macrophages. It's talking about how it works for cancer, so I don't know if the same process would hold true for Crohn's or not, but here it is. Pretty interesting.
I emailed the company asking if Americans like myself can drive up and participate in the trial. I wonder how safe it really is though....
Anyway, this is awesome that you found this & shared it crohnscoulton. How did you happen to find this?
http://www.qubiologics.com/technology/how-it-works
How SSIs Work
Substantial historical and published evidence shows that acute bacterial infection may reverse cancer development, even in advanced stages. Anecdotally, many clinicians dating back to the time of Hippocrates have observed that people who developed cancer had rarely experienced colds, flus or infections earlier in life. Simply put, by stimulating the immune system’s natural surveillance and defence actions, acute bacterial infection may enable the immune system to stop a tumour from growing, and thus reverse cancer development.
SSIs were developed as a treatment to mimic acute infection allowing the development of an anti-tumour immune response. In order to better understand how Qu Biologics’ SSIs harness the immune system to treat cancer, it is helpful to become familiar with one of the key components of the innate immune response – the macrophage cell.
Macrophages are a type of white blood cell which perform two essential roles in the human body: tissue repair and immune response. In cancer, these roles are opposing. Macrophages functioning in their “tissue repair” mode can stimulate cancer growth (M2 macrophages), while those functioning in their “tissue defense” role can inhibit and destroy tumour cells (M1 macrophages).
During wound healing, M2 macrophages act as sentinel cells that coordinate the tissue repair process. When functioning in their tissue repair role, M2 macrophages actively support cancer growth by releasing cytokines that suppress the immune response within the tumour microenvironment. In the case of cancer, the tissue repair response is actually detrimental, as rather than attacking the defective cancer cells, it favours the conditions necessary for their proliferation, leading to tumour formation.
In sharp contrast, an acute bacterial infection, acting as a strong antigenic stimulus, can activate M1 macrophages, inducing a cascade of cytokines/chemokines that results in tumour regression, and eventually, destruction.
Qu Biologics hypothesizes that treatment with the appropriate SSI mimics an acute bacterial infection in the cancerous organ/tissue, stimulating macrophages to perform their essential role in defence against foreign pathogens, as opposed to tissue repair. In agreement with this, Qu Biologics’ research team has demonstrated that SSI therapy shifts macrophage dominance from M2 to M1 within the tumour microenvironment in a mouse model of lung cancer. Further, this important shift in macrophage function is associated with tumour regression in these mice.
From a clinical perspective, the expression profile of immune cells within the tumour microenvironment is highly correlated with prognosis – more highly correlated than any currently used prognostic indicator, including tumour grade, presence or absence of lymph nodes, or use of chemotherapy. Not surprisingly, the greater the density of M1-type macrophages, the better the prognosis. Targeting and harnessing the tumouricidal activity of M1 macrophages therefore holds significant promise as an innovative approach to treating cancer.
