Cancer Drugs Shed Light on Rheumatism
Reporter: Irina Robu, PhD
The human body is often described as being ‘at war’. By this, it is meant that the body is constantly under attack from things that are trying to do it harm. These include toxins, bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses. The human immune system is one of the most effective defense mechanisms known to nature and can sometimes can be overwhelmed by disease. Yet, on occasions our immune systems turn on our own tissue and attack it which can trigger conditions such as type I diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
In the case of rheumatoid arthritis, immune cells start to attack tissues in the joins which causes them to become painful, stiff and swollen. It is known that one third of those who develop rheumatoid arthritis, feel the horrible effects of the disease within two years of its onset. Immunologist Adrian Hayday, which is a researcher at Francis Crick Institute of London says that the current treatment for rheumatoid arthritis require patients to take the drugs for the rest of their lives. But, researchers such as Hayday found an unexpected ally in the battle against autoimmune disease, cancer.
However, there is a positive consequence to the discovery that cancer immunotherapies have the effect of triggering autoimmune diseases and for the first-time rheumatoid arthritis can be detected at the earliest stages. At present, people are not diagnosed with the condition until symptoms have already made their lives so unpleasant, they have gone to see their doctors. As a result, research backed by Cancer Research UK and Arthritis Research UK, has been launched with the aim of uncovering the roots of autoimmune disease from research on cancer patients.
The scientists mentioned stress that their work is only now start and warn that it will still take several years of research to get substantial results. Nevertheless, uncovering the first stages of an autoimmune disease emerging in a person’s body should give researchers a vital lead in ultimately developing treatments that will prevent or halt a range of conditions that currently cause a great deal of misery and require constant medication.
Our immune defenses consist of a range of cells and proteins that notice invading micro-organisms and attack them. The first line of defense, yet, consists of simple physical barriers similar to skin, which blocks invaders from entering your body. When this defense is penetrated, they are attacked by a number of agents. The key cells, leukocytes seek out and destroy disease-causing organisms. Neutrophils rush to the site of an infection and attack invading bacteria. Helper T-cells give instructions to other cells while killer T-cells punch holes in infected cells so that their contents ooze out. After these macrophages clean up the mess left behind.
Another significant agent is the B-cell, which produces antibodies that lock on to sites on the surface of bacteria or viruses and immobilize them until macrophages consume them. These cells can live a long time and can answer quickly following a second exposure to the same infections. In conclusion, suppressor T-cells act when an infection has been distributed with and the immune system needs to be reassured, the killer cells may keep on attacking, as they do in autoimmune diseases. By slowing down the immune system, regulatory T-cells prevent damage to “good” cells.
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