Current and future immunomodulation strategies to restore tolerance in autoimmune diseases.

ABSTRACT: Autoimmune diseases reflect a breakdown in self-tolerance that results from defects in thymic deletion of potentially autoreactive T cells (central tolerance) and in T-cell intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms that normally control potentially autoreactive T cells in the periphery (peripheral tolerance). The mechanisms leading to autoimmune diseases are multifactorial and depend on a complex combination of genetic, epigenetic, molecular, and cellular elements that result in pathogenic inflammatory responses in peripheral tissues driven by self-antigen-specific T cells. In this article, we describe the different checkpoints of tolerance that are defective in autoimmune diseases as well as specific events in the autoimmune response which represent therapeutic opportunities to restore long-term

SUBMITTER: Bluestone JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3536337 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature