autoimmune disease

Autoimmune disease
Dr. Baha,Hamdi.AL-Amiedi
Ph.D.Microbiology


Paul Ehrich
The term coined by the German immunologist paul Ehrich ( 1854-1915)
To describe the bodys innate aversion
to immunological self - destraction
Autoimmunity :
Normally the immune system known its own tissues as self and does not react to them . Rarely, however there is a breakdown in this recognition and the immune system destroy its own it is no surprising that antiself specificites occur , there are mechanism which kill these self - reactive cell , as described earlier , but some escape this surveillance , some autoimmune disease are triggered by microbial antigen which mimic or cross – react with self tissue a phenomena termed autoimmunity As specificity repertoires that are component
Autoimmune diseases is a group of disorders in which tissue injury is caused by humoral (by auto-antibodies) or cell mediated immune response (by auto-reactive T cells) to self antigens.
-An autoimmune disorder may result in:
-The destruction of one or more types of body tissue1-
Abnormal growth of an organ2-
-Changes in organ function3-
Classification of autoimmune disease:
The organ specific when the specific pathology is confined to particular organ :
(eg:Hashimotos disease , pernicious anaemia , Addisons disease )
And when the pathology is not confined to particular organ the disorder were placed under the head non-organ specific .
systemic lupus erythrematosis, reheumatoid arithritis, dermatomyositis
Moreover autoimmune disorder may overlap that mean a patient have more than one organ-specific disease & more than one systemic disease
Based on the clinical experimental studies it has been suggested that autoimmunity may arise due to an
immunologic imbalance with excessive B-cell activity &diminished suppressor T-cell activity. This imbalance may occur as a consequence of genetic , viral and environmental mechanisms acting singly or combination
Diagnosis autoimmune disease:
General signs of autoimmune disease that may have diagnostic value include :
1-Elvated serum gamma globuline
2-presence of autoantibodies
3-Depress levels of serum complement
4-lmmune complex in serum
5-lesion detected on biopsy (e.glomerular lesions) resulting from deposition of immune complexs
The goals of treatment are to:
1-Reduce symptoms
2-Control the autoimmune process
3-Maintain the body s ability to fight disease
if the autoimmune disorder affects the blood-may need blood transfusions.
Medicines are often prescribed to control or reduce the immune system s response- called immunosuppressive medicines.
in the future gene therapy
vaccines to turn off the autoimmune response