Some researchers say a new approach, which suppresses a particular part of the immune system rather than amplifying it, could be available in the next five years

Some researchers say a new approach, which suppresses a particular part of the immune system rather than amplifying it, could be available in the next five years

  • RuBisCO@slrpnk.net
    17·
    2 days ago

    “This is the holy grail,” says the Northwestern University immunologist Stephen Miller. “We want to use a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer to treat these diseases.”

    Unfortunate coincidence aside, really interesting research. Auto-immune diseases suuuuck.

    • nomad@infosec.pub
      71·
      2 days ago

      This is actually a very promising thing that is currently in phase 2 trials for celiac disease. The main problem with it is that you have to give the patient what triggers his disease to unlearn the thing from the system. Meaning if you are deadly allergic, this would still kill you. Recent research suggests that really small doses can still help to reduce the immune response over time (study about peanut allergy if i remember correctly).

      My son was recently diagnosed with celiac. And although living with it is no big thing, and I’m not looking forward to him puking his guts out a few times, I’m hoping this will heal him permanently as celiac often is a cause for cancer later in life due to regular micro exposure. And celiac does not go away by itself right for that reason.

      I’m excited for my friends with multiple sclerosis. The medication helps keeping the disease in check, but they still have to go through some of the attacks. One of those inflammation attacks could be their last ever with this treatment.

      So: very hopeful, I have an alert on the study results, they are due any day now. The bookmark is on my desktop though, so might add that later if there is wider interest.