Posted on 04/09/2010 5:19:19 PM PDT by neverdem
Researchers find self-regulating feature of immune system
Weakness can be a strength when it comes to keeping the immune system from attacking the body’s own cells, mouse experiments that use a new vaccine against type 1 diabetes reveal.
The new research, published online April 8 in Immunity, describes previously unknown cells that keep the immune system in check. The study demonstrates that the immune system is already outfitted with tools that can defuse destructive autoimmune reactions without damaging the body’s ability to fight infections. And it suggests that harnessing those tools may be a successful strategy for developing a vaccine for type 1 diabetes in humans.
In type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes, white blood cells called T-cells attack insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. This type of self-destructive behavior is also at the root of diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
Despite knowing for decades what causes the type 1 diabetes, “we haven’t been able to come up with a strategy that will selective blunt autoimmunity without impairing the immune system in general,” says study leader Pere Santamaria, an immunologist and geneticist at the Julia McFarlane Diabetes Research Centre at the University of Calgary in Canada. The new research reveals one way that healthy immune systems keep themselves from attacking the body’s own cells.
In one sense the immune system is like a cellular commando unit with some members that specialize in identifying threats, and others specialize in wiping them out.
Antigen-presenting cells are the intelligence operatives. They cruise around compiling information about invading microbes by sucking up bits of protein left in the debris of past battles. Then they hand information about those proteins to T cells, which go around looking for any cells that fit the description and kill them.
But sometimes...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
autoimmuno ping
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WOW! Here is hoping it works in people too. I was diagonised with type 1 at 9 yo in 1970 so I’ve had it for a very long time still fairly healthy and if something like this stopped the damage to my body I just might live to be a very old lady! :)
In plain English what does that mean?
Don’t expect Obamacare to offer this.
Mice get excellent medical care don’t they.
Yet another cure for diabetes in mice. Neat result, but mouse results are notorious for not carrying over to human treatments.
LOL Yes they do. I only wish that everythng that worked in them also worked in humans.
I’d travel to Canada and pay for it myself if it meant a cure.
Everytime I read a new study on some drug to my hubby, that is what he says,,”mice get excellent care”. It always cracks me up.
Whoa! Big possibilities here.
Thank-you that is what I thought it said but being uneducated beyond high school science I thought i’d better ask.It would be quite a breakthrough if it also works in humans.
If something came from this that could cure m.s. that would really be great.
Thanks for the help, The_Sword_of_Groo, but you got the last part mixed up. Here's part of the caption from the graphical abstract in comment# 5.
Memory autoregulatory T cells suppress and kill autoantigen-loaded APCs
“attacks a type of T Cell whose function it is to identify targets for the immune system.”
Would attacking thise type of T cell make the immune system less likely to also be able to identify and target infections?
That statement is wrong.
Would attacking thise type of T cell make the immune system less likely to also be able to identify and target infections?
Your question is based on a false premise. As a general rule, most types of T cells, white blood cells also known as T lymphocytes, attack. The exception is T helper cells, IIRC.
I'm not an immunologist, but here's a section on CELL-MEDIATED IMMUNITY, the part that involves T cells. Humoral immunity involves B cells which generate antibodies. There's a fair amount of interplay between all the parts of the immune system, and plenty that's still not understood.
The link is from a med school immunology and microbiology course or courses. I took them as separate courses over 20 years ago.
Good luck to you! My cousin’s son has this and I know several others with that disease. Very tough for kids to adjust to.
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