Autoimmunity in 2011

Abstract

The mechanisms leading to the onset and perpetuation of systemic and tissue-specific autoimmune diseases are complex, and numerous hypotheses have been proposed or confirmed over the past 12 months. It is particularly of note that the number of articles published during 2011 in the major immunology and autoimmunity journals increased by 3 % compared to the previous year. The present article is dedicated to a brief review of the reported data and, albeit not comprehensive of all articles, is aimed at identifying common and future themes. First, clinical researchers were particularly dedicated to defining refractory forms of diseases and to discuss the use and switch of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies in everyday practice. Second, following the plethora of genome-wide association studies reported in most multifactorial diseases, it became clear that genomics cannot fully explain the individual susceptibility and additional environmental or epigenetic factors are necessary. Both these components were widely investigated, both in organ-specific (i.e., type 1 diabetes) and systemic (i.e., systemic lupus erythematosus) diseases. Third, a large number of 2011 works published in the autoimmunity area are dedicated to dissect pathogenetic mechanisms of tolerance breakdown in general or in specific conditions. While our understanding of T regulatory and Th17 cells has significantly increased in 2011, it is of note that most of the proposed lines of evidence identify potential targets for future treatments and should not be overlooked.

Clinical Recommendations for the Use of Islet Cell Autoantibodies to Distinguish Autoimmune and Non-Autoimmune Gestational Diabetes

“…There is enormous literature on both main types of diabetes -T1D and T2D, including the role of microflora [107,108], inflammatory responses, including gestational influences [109][110][111][112], interventional studies in both humans and animal models [113][114][115][116][117], the role of vitamin D and other nutritional factors [118][119][120][121], and better definition of genetic control, autoantibodies, and the implications of offspring of the diabetic mother [122][123][124]. In this manuscript, we have focused on the research data that reflects the metabolic conditions of pregnancy and adiposity.…”

The epigenetics of PBC: The link between genetic susceptibility and environment

“…Global hypomethylation as well as hypo-or hypermethylation of specific loci [79,80] is tipical features of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ulcerative colitis (UC). Moreover, DNA methylation plays essential roles in normal transcriptional control of key factors in T cell differentiation and function, such as the interferon gamma locus [81], and the transcription factors forkhead box P3 (FoxP3) [82] and AIRE [83].…”

Celiac Disease and Endocrine Autoimmunity

“…In contrast to type I, family members of PAS II patients are often affected. PAS II is believed to be polygenic, characterized by autosomal dominant inheritance [35,36,37,38,39,40]. …”