Adjusting the Behavior of Specific Immune Cells to Reverse Autoimmunity

Autoimmune conditions such as multiple sclerosis can be cured by clearing the entire adult immune system and letting it reestablish itself. The misconfigurations of autoimmunity are carried by some immune cells, and removing all of them happens to be the easiest way to proceed in the absence of knowing exactly where the problem lies. This is currently a fairly risky and unpleasant procedure, akin to chemotherapy. Future improvement might involve less toxic means of removing immune cells, or a more targeted approach enabled by a greater understanding of exactly which immune cells cause autoimmunity. Given a good enough understanding of the mechanisms involved, it should be possible to solve the problem by changing cell state and behavior rather than destroying cells. The latter approach is in evidence here, in which researchers demonstrate reversal of autoimmunity in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis - though there remains a way to go in order to explain exactly what is going on under the hood. While autoimmune diseases are largely not age-related, there is certainly a great deal of dysfunction in the aging immune system that might be eliminated by destroying all immune cells, or only some of the errant immune cells that cause such issues, or by altering their state and behavior. That list runs in order of difficulty: destroying all cells is a lot easier than the other options, especially given the gaps in knowledge that still exist when it comes to the immune system ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs