Autoimmune disorders encompass a wide range of immunological diseases that affect 4%-10% of the population worldwide. They occur when immunological tolerance toward self-antigens is broken, resulting in immune responses against cells, tissues, or organs that lead to tissue dysfunction and/or destruction. The goal of autoimmune disease therapy is to restore tolerance to the self-antigen that causes the pathology by targeting autoreactive T cells while preserving immune competence to prevent infections and malignancies. The main challenge of this endeavor resides in choosing the mode by which the disease-driving antigen is delivered so that it can initiate the removal or reprogramming of the autoreactive T cells or the induction and/or expansion of antigen-specific regulatory T (Treg) cells to suppress autoreactive T cells. Although the potential of antigen-based immunotherapy approaches to restore tolerance have been demonstrated for the treatment of immunoglobulin E (IgE) — mediated peanut allergy (1), antigen therapies for autoimmune disorders are still being developed.
On Tolerance
Excuse me, but wasn’t it you, in your wisdom, who said that we must establish boundaries? Much like the nations, which have found it…