Worldwide, more people are suffering from the inability of their immune systems to differentiate between healthy cells or invading microscopic organisms. Instead of protecting themselves against disease their organs and tissues are being attacked by these same defenses.
Major international research efforts are underway to stop this trend, including an initiative at London's Francis Crick Institute, where two world experts, James Lee and Carola Vinuesa, have set up distinct research groups to determine the exact causes of autoimmune disease, as these conditions are known.
Lee explained that autoimmune diseases are increasing since the past 40 years in the West. However, some cases are now being seen in countries that have not experienced such diseases.
For instance for instance, the Middle East and East Asia are the regions that have the highest number of cases of inflammatory intestinal diseases. They'd never seen the disease.
Autoimmune diseases range from type 1 diabetes to rheumatoid arthritis inflammation of the bowel and multiple sclerosis. Every case is unique. In all cases the immune system crosses its wires and turns on healthy tissue rather than infectious agents.
There are at most 4,000,000 people suffering from autoimmune disorders in the UK, and some suffer from more than one. Globally, it's thought that the number of autoimmune diseases is rising at the rate of 3%-9% per annum. Many scientists believe that environmental factors play a key factor in this growth.
Lee who was previously employed in Cambridge University, said that the human genetic makeup is not changing over the last few decades. There's a possibility that something is happening in the world outside that has increased our susceptibility to autoimmune disease.
Vinuesa who was a former student at the Australian National University, supported this concept. She discussed the shifts in diets that occurred when more nations adopted west-style diets and people were eating more fast foods.
Foods that are processed and fast-food-based lack vital ingredients, for instance fibre, and evidence suggests that this can affect your microbiome, which is the collection of micro-organisms that we have in our digestive tract and that are essential in regulating various body functions, Vinuesa explained.
These changes in the microbiomes can then trigger autoimmune diseases. More than 100 different types of autoimmune disorders have been discovered.
The scientists both stressed that everyone is susceptible to developing these illnesses including celiac Lupus, and various other illnesses like celiac which cause inflammation and swelling and may cause severe damage to various organs.
Vinuesa clarified that autoimmune diseases aren't something you can be diagnosed with if you don't have a particular genetic susceptibility. There's nothing we can do about the expansion of fast-food chains across the world. We're instead trying to figure out how autoimmune conditions are caused and the genetic factors that cause certain individuals to be more vulnerable to autoimmune diseases than others. That is the level where we plan to address this issue."
Scientists have the capability to spot tiny variations in the DNA of a large number of individuals. This is possible because of new techniques. This allows us to find common genetic patterns among those suffering from autoimmune diseases.
Lee claims that, although we had the technology for sequencing DNA to the point of being able to sequence DNA, until recent but it was not feasible. My research showed that there are about six DNA variations that are involved in the trigger of inflammatory bowel diseases. Today, we have over 250.
Lee and Vinuesa are working on this research because they wish to understand how genetic pathways work and the underlying causes of the diverse illnesses that doctors are currently studying. Vinuesa said there could be many versions of some conditions that cause autoimmune disease, such as Lupus. This is a problem when you are trying to determine the most effective treatment.
Although there are many potentially efficient new therapies currently in development, we don't yet know which people they ought to be offered to. This is because we don't really know the precise nature of their disease. And that is now a key goal for autoimmune research. For the right treatment, it is necessary to understand how to classify and categorize patients.
Lee said that the escalating instances of autoimmune diseases around the globe meant that new therapies and medicines were urgently needed more than ever before. Lee also said that there's at Read More present no treatment for autoimmune diseases. They typically are seen in children as they try to finish their studies, get a job, and start families.
This means that a rising number of people are having to have surgery or will require injections regularly throughout their entire life. It's a bleak time for patients as well as a significant burden on health care services. Hence the urgent need to discover new, efficient treatments.
Rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune disease. This means the immune system is attacking healthy tissues. But, it's not understood what causes this.
The antibodies your immune system produces to fight bacteria Read More and viruses is the ones you require to fight infections.
If you have Rheumatoid Arthritis the immune system releases antibodies into your joint' lining, where they target the tissues around them.
This causes the thin cells-like layer of your joints (synovium), to become irritated and painful, which releases chemicals that can cause harm to the area.
bones
Cartilage, which is the connective tissue between bones.
Tendons, the tissues that join muscles to bone
Ligaments form the connective tissue that connects bone and cartilage.
Rheumatoid arthritis is treatable but isn't controlled. The chemicals that cause it cause joints to become unbalanced and distorted. The end result can be irreparable.
There are numerous theories as to how the immune system can attack joints, which includes the possibility of an infection as the trigger. However, none of these theories have been proven to be true.
Possible risk factors
There are many things that can increase your chances of developing rheumatoid arthritis for example:
The genes. There are indications that rheumatoid-related arthritis may occur in families. But, because genes play a minor part in the condition's development it is not a high risk of the disease being passed to the next generation.
Hormones - Rheumatoid Arthritis is more common in women than in males. This may result from the effect of Oestrogen. But this connection is not yet established.
Smoking is a risk factor for rheumatoid artifiid. Some evidence supports this.