HOW INFECTION CAN TRIGGER AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE
MEDIA RELEASE: 09 Nov 2012
Associate Professor Robert Brink and Dr Tyani Chan
Embargoed until 12:00 noon EST 8 November 2012 / 9 November at 0400 Sydney time
Australian scientists have confirmed a ‘weak link’ in the immune system – identifying the exact conditions under which an infection can trigger an autoantibody response, a process not clearly understood until now.
We have known for many years that autoimmune diseases such as rheumatic fever and Guillain-Barré syndrome (where the body makes antibodies that attack the heart and peripheral nerves respectively) can occur after the body makes immune responses against certain infectious micro-organisms.
We have known for many years that autoimmune diseases such as rheumatic fever and Guillain-Barré syndrome (where the body makes antibodies that attack the heart and peripheral nerves respectively) can occur after the body makes immune responses against certain infectious micro-organisms.
We have not been able to explain exactly how such examples of infection-driven autoimmunity occur, however, nor why our bodies seem unable to prevent them. READ FULL STORY AT THE GARVAN INSTITUTE...
STORY was also published:
New light shed on autoimmune diseases Friday Nov 9, 2012
Australian scientists have shed new light into how some autoimmune diseases can take hold,...Read article in The NZ Herald
No comments:
Post a Comment