Karolinska: Researchers discover new immune control mechanism

05 May 2010 | Network Updates

Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet have discovered a new control mechanism in the immune system, which they say is of potential significance to the treatment of serious diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and Systemic lupus erythematosus.

“Now that we’ve started to understand the regulatory mechanisms involved in these autoimmune diseases, we are hopeful that new treatments can be found,” says Mikael Karlsson, associate professor at the Department of Medicine at Karolinska Institutet (KI) in Solna, and one of the team behind the study in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

B cells are normally responsible for producing antibodies, which bind to and neutralise invasive microorganisms, such as bacteria and viruses. But in people with an autoimmune disease, B cells are activated against the body’s own tissues.

Patients with autoimmune diseases have lower levels of Natural Killer T (NKT) cells. Previously, it was not known what part these cells play in the origin and development of the disease. Now, however, the research group at KI has shown that this deficiency is a contributory pathogenic factor.

We’ve demonstrated that NKT cells can regulate how B cells become activated against healthy tissue, and that a lack of NKT cells results in greater misguided B cell activation,” says Karlsson. “So now we can mechanically link the NKT cell defect in patients to the disease.”

The study also shows that the NKT cells directly impede faulty B cell activation, and that they do so early in the misdirected process. The team managed to inhibit the activity of pathogenic B cells by adding NKT cells, pointing the way to a possible approach to therapy.

“This means that new treatments specifically targeting the protective NKT cells can help this patient group,” Karlsson said.

For more information, see the Karolinska Institutet website: http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=130&a=100082&l=sv&newsdep=130


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