A bad cough, a swollen wound, the chills of the flu... everyone has experienced the signs of a healthy immune system in action. For most of us, the discomfort is a temporary reminder that our body is working the way it should and attacking a foreign invader, like a bacteria or virus. But for one in five Americans, the body has turned upon itself.
Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system mistakenly flags certain cells in the body as foreign invaders. The resulting attack can cause irreparable damage to critical organs and tissues. In type 1 diabetes, the target is the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas; in multiple sclerosis, it is the myelin coating that insulates nerve cells; in lupus, it can be any number of organs or systems that are damaged.
Although their root cause is the same, the symptoms and complications of autoimmune diseases are vast and varied. So too are the treatments, which in many cases only seek to relieve symptoms. It is common, however, to treat many autoimmune diseases with medicines called "immunosuppressive drugs". These suppress the autoimmune attack on tissues of the body by reducing the overall activity of the immune system - meaning that the good, disease-fighting parts of the immune system are also suppressed. This leaves patients more vulnerable to real threats like viruses and bacteria and even certain types of cancer.
Immune tolerance therapies are designed to work in a different way. Rather than suppress the immune system as a whole, they aim to suppress only the parts of the immune system responsible for the autoimmune attack (or perhaps prevented in the first place). The goal is to stop the autoimmune disease while leave the body's disease fighting abilities intact. What's more, tolerance therapies are designed to essentially reprogram the immune system, so that a short course of treatment will have long-lasting (perhaps lifelong) effects. While immune tolerance therapies are, for the most part, still experimental, the ITN and its sponsors believe that they hold a great deal of promise to one day effectively treat autoimmune diseases with fewer side effects than current drugs.
At present, the ITN is conducting several clinical trials of promising new therapies in a range of autoimmune diseases. Use the menu at left to view a list of ITN clinical trials now enrolling subjects.
