T cells as a cause of autoimmunity.In autoimmune diseases Autoimmune diseases A group of diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, in which immune cells turn on the body, attacking various tissues and organs. Mentioned in: Complement Deficiencies, Premature Menopause such as systemic lupus erythematosus Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Definition Systemic lupus erythematosus (also called lupus or SLE) is a disease where a person's immune system attacks and injures the body's own organs and tissues. Almost every system of the body can be affected by SLE. , the immune system attacks the body, and one goal of researchers is to determine what step in the complex immune system progression goes awry. The popular theory about lupus, says William E. Seaman, is that B cells, antibody-producing cells that are normally controlled by T cells, become independent of T cells. Now, he reports, "our studies show that's not true." He and David Wofsy of the University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). at San Francisco injected three strains of mice prone to lupus with monoclonal antibodies against T cells. In one of the three strains, the disease disappeared, indicating T cell involvement in the condition, they report in the February JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE The Journal of Experimental Medicine is an academic journal that publishes research papers and commentaries in the biomedical area. Topics covered include immunology, inflammation, infectious disease, hematopoiesis, cancer, stem cells and vascular biology. . The finding is in agreement with a report in the Jan. 25 SCIENCE in which Stanford University researchers described reversing an experimentally induced autoimmune disease in mice by using monoclonal antibodies against T cells. While Seaman expects that the T cell dependence also holds for humans, he doesn't think monoclonal antibody therapy Monoclonal antibody therapy is the use of monoclonal antibodies (or Mab) to specifically target cells. The main objective is stimulating the patient's immune system to attack the malignant tumor cells and the prevention of tumor growth by blocking specific cell receptors. is ready for use. Stopping the helper T cells may leave a person open to infections or possibly cancer, he says. |
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