A lot of people across the world suffer with an immune system that is unable to differentiate between healthy cells invading bacteria, or diseases. Organs and tissues are now being attacked by defenses against disease that they once had.
International research is being undertaken to counter this trend. This includes a project at London's Francis Crick Institute where two world-renowned experts, James Lee, and Carola Vinuesa have created separate research groups to identify the causes behind autoimmune disorders.
Lee told the Observer, that autoimmune cases have increased in western countries about 40 years ago. New cases are being reported in countries where the diseases have never been seen before.
The Middle East and East Asia have seen the highest rise in the incidence of inflammatory bowel diseases. Before this, people had barely seen the disease.
Type 1 diabetes multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoidarthitis all are autoimmune illnesses. In each of these cases the immune system becomes confused and shifts to healthy tissues over infective agents.
In the UK alone, around 4 million people have been diagnosed with these conditions, with a few sufferers suffering from more than one. According to international estimates that the number of sufferers of autoimmune diseases is on the rise by anywhere from 3% to nine percent per year. Researchers believe that environmental triggers are key to this rise.
Lee who was previously employed in Cambridge University, said that the human genetics of human beings has not changed over the past decades. There must be something outside that is causing our predisposition for autoimmune disease.
Vinuesa who was a former student at the Australian National University, supported this idea. She mentioned the shifts in diets that occurred as more countries adopted west-style diets and people were eating more fast food.
Diets that focus on fast food lack some essential ingredients, like fiber, and research suggests that this can affect the microbiome of a person - the collection of micro-organisms that are found in our digestive tract and that play an important role in controlling various bodily functions, Vinuesa stated.
The changes in our microbiomes then trigger autoimmune disorders There are more than 100 types.
Both researchers stressed that there were individual susceptibilities to the diseases. This includes celiac as well as Lupus. It causes inflammation, swelling, and could cause death and damage to various organs, such as the heart.
"If you don't possess a certain genetic susceptibility it is unlikely that you will develop an auto-immune disease, no matter how many Big Macs you consume," said Vinuesa. There is no way to stop the proliferation of fast-food outlets all over the world. Instead, we're trying to to understand the genetic causes of the condition and how individuals are more susceptible to it. We want to tackle the problem Read More at this level."
This task is possible thanks to the advancement of methods which allow scientists to pinpoint tiny DNA differences among large numbers of individuals. This is the way it's possible to identify the common genetic patterns of patients who suffer from auto immune disease.
Lee explained that until recently we didn't have the tools needed to sequence DNA. Now, we have this amazing power and it has changed everything. When I started doing studies, we were aware of half a dozen DNA variants which were responsible for triggering inflammatory bowel disease. Today, we have more than 250.
Such work lies at the heart of Lee and Vinuesa's research efforts, which aim to find out how the various genetic pathways function and to unravel the various types of diseases doctors are looking at. Vinuesa stated that there are Click here a variety of variants of autoimmune diseases, like Lupus. This could have an adverse impact on your ability to determine the best treatment.
Numerous new treatments are in development and we don’t know who to give these to. Because we don’t know their specific disease, there are many possibilities. This is an important aspect in research into autoimmune diseases. It is important to understand how to stratify and group patients so that you can give them the right therapy.
Lee said that with the rising incidence of autoimmune diseases all over the world, new treatments and medications are needed more urgently than ever before. It is not possible to treat autoimmune diseases. It happens when people are young and trying to complete their college education and get their first job, and have families.
That means more people are likely to undergo surgery and/or have regular injections throughout their life. This can be very difficult for patients as well as a huge pressure on healthcare. We require innovative and effective treatments.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease. It's caused when the immune system targets healthy body tissues. This is a mystery.
Your immune system normally makes antibodies that fight bacteria and viruses, helping to fight off infection.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease that affects your immune system and sends antibodies to your joints. They attack the tissue surrounding the joint.
This causes the tiny layer of cells (synovium) covering your joints to become swollen and inflamed. It releases chemicals that cause damage to nearby joints:
bones
Cartilage - The connective tissue that joins bones and cartilage
Tendons are the connective tissue between bone and muscles.
Ligaments – The tissue connecting bone and cartilage
Rheumatoid arthritis may be treated but isn't treated. The chemicals can cause joints to become unbalanced and distorted. It could eventually cause the destruction of the joint.
There are a myriad of theories on why the immune system attacks joints, which includes the possibility that an infection could be an trigger. But none of them has been proven to be true.
Possible risk factors
You could be at greater risk for developing rheumatoid arthritis in the event that you fail to follow the following steps:
Your genes - There's some evidence suggesting that rheumatoid arthritis can be passed through families. But the chance of it passing to children is very low as genes play a limited part in the disease.
Hormone-Rheumatoid Ailment is more frequent among women than in men. This could be due to estrogen effects, but this isn't confirmed.
Smoking is a risky habit. There is evidence to suggest that smoking increases the likelihood of developing rheumatoid arthritis.