Scientists at Bristol University last week announced an important breakthrough in the fight against autoimmune diseases like lupus by revealing how to stop cells attacking healthy tissue in autoimmune diseases like lupus SLE.

Scientists were able to selectively target the cells that cause autoimmune disease by dampening down their aggression against the body’s own tissues while converting them into cells capable of protecting against disease.

This sort of therapy has already been used in treating people with severe allergies e.g. someone who is allergic to peanuts is gradually exposed to more and more of this specific allergen in a very controlled way over a long period of time. Gradually their own immune system’s response dampens. This means that over time their antibodies no longer react to peanuts as a threat, which means that the person no longer risks going into anaphylactic shock when they eat peanuts.

This same theory may now be applied to autoimmune diseases because scientists at Bristol University have studied how the immune cells are “turned off” by this kind of therapy.

By specifically targeting the cells at fault, this immunotherapeutic approach avoids the need for powerful immune suppressive drugs like steroids and their associated side effects.

Professor David Wraith, who led the research, said: “Insight into the molecular basis of antigen-specific immunotherapy opens up exciting new opportunities to enhance the selectivity of the approach while providing valuable markers with which to measure effective treatment. These findings have important implications for the many patients suffering from autoimmune conditions that are currently difficult to treat.”

To read more follow this link to the full news article and full published paper.