Autoimmunity
Autoimmunity arises when the body generates aberrant immune responses against its own cells and tissues. Many diseases have a strong autoimmune component, including type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), coeliac disease, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and Sjögren's syndrome.
Concept and treatment of autoimmune disease
Ian Mackay and Macfarlane Burnet were amongst the first to recognize the phenomenon of autoimmunity and Mackay pioneered immunosuppressive treatment for autoimmune diseases.
- Mackay IR and Burnet FM (1963) Autoimmune diseases, pathogenesis, chemistry and therapy. Springfield: Thomas
- Mackay IR Bull NY Acad Med (1976) The concept of autoimmune liver disease 52(4) 453-65
Improving therapy
Major advances have been made in early diagnosis of type 1 diabetes and immunotherapy trials are underway to prevent it.
- Harrison LC, Honeyman MC, DeAizpurua HJ, Schmidli RS, Colman PG, Tait BD, Cram DS 1993 Inverse relation between humoral and cellular immunity to glutamic acid decarboxylase in subjects at risk of insulin-dependent diabetes. Lancet 341(8857) 1365-1369)
- Harrison LC, Dempsey-Collier M, Kramer DR and Takahashi K 1996 Aerosol insulin induces regulatory CD8 gamma delta cells that prevent murine insulin-dependent diabetes J Exp Med 184 (6) 2167-2174
- Harrison LC (2006). The prevention of autoimmune disease: Type 1 diabetes as a paradigm. In: The Autoimmune Diseases (Rose N, Mackay I, Eds). Elsevier Ltd, London, UK. 4th Ed, 75, 1045-1062.
G-CSF blockade has been validated as a novel therapeutic approach for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis
- Lawlor KE, Campbell IK, Metcalf, D, O’Donnell K, van Nieuwenhuijze A, Roberts AW & Wicks IP (2004) Critical role for granulocyte colony stimulating factor in inflammatory arthritis. Proc Nat Acad Sciences, USA 101:11398-11403