Essay On Autoimmunity

One of the many wonders of a perfectly functioning and healthy human body is its immune system, which may be considered as a powerful set of tools developed for resisting any sudden invasion of microorganisms or, any foreign particle as such. The striking feature of the immune system is self-tolerance, i.e. the body recognizes its own molecules and does not mount an immune response against them. Yet, there are some instances when this defence mechanism reverses and attacks the human body itself. This process, known as autoimmunity, is highly complex and is defined by loss of self-tolerance and the presence of autoantibodies or T-lymphocytes reactive with host antigens. Autoimmunity, although present in everyone to some extent, is the cause of a broad spectrum of human illnesses, called autoimmune diseases. Multiple factors are involved and the disease progression is determined by both genetic and environmental triggers. Pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases is governed by chronic excess reactivity of B and T cells against autoantigens, evidence of lymphocytic infiltrates in target organs and associated tissue damage.

Type 1 Diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is a multisystem disease with both biochemical and anatomical consequences. It is a chronic disease of carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism, caused by the progressive autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing beta islet cells of the pancreas. This results in decreased production of insulin and consequently increased levels of blood glucose. The disease is hence, also, termed as Insulin-dependent Diabetes mellitus (IDDM) since the affected individuals are dependent on an external source of insulin, lifelong.

Insulin is produced in the pancreas by beta cells of the islets of Langerh...

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...f eTACs are loaded with our molecule of choice that we want to induce tolerance to, the autoreactive T-cells can be arrested. Such a strategy could help selectively shut down unwanted immune responses as occurs in autoimmunity.

Autoimmunity might be both the cause and consequence of beta-cell dysfunction. The identification of more autoantigens in the course of studies would be the focus point of treatment of autoimmunity. They can be exploited in much more diverse clinical attempts: such as tools to understand pathogenesis, to form the basis of biomarkers, and most importantly, to treat and prevent autoimmunity. It would also be imperative to carefully monitor the efficacy of autoantigen-dependent treatment procedures in future endeavours. Novel advances in this field of study are ever essential to further widen our horizon and contribute to this motif of research.