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Autoimmune disease

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Autoimmune diseases arise from an overactive immune response of the body against substances and tissues normally present in the body. In other words, the body really attacks its own cells. This may be restricted to certain organs (e.g. in thyroiditis) or involve a particular tissue in different places (e.g. Goodpasture's disease which may affect the basement membrane in both the lung and the kidney). The treatment of autoimmune diseases is typically with immunosuppression—medication which decreases the immune response.

For more information about Autoimmune disease, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with autoimmune diseases

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'Autoantibodies' may be created in response to bacterial DNA (w/Video)

Medicine & Health / Research

created Apr 27, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 0

Autoimmune diseases have long been regarded as illnesses in which the immune system creates autoantibodies to attack the body itself. But, researchers at the California non-profit Autoimmunity Research Foundation (ARF) explain ...


Researchers make breakthrough against poxviruses

Biology /

created Jan 23, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (8) | comments 0

Smallpox has a nasty history throughout the world. Caused by poxviruses, smallpox is one of the few disease-causing agents against which the human body's immune system is ineffective in its defense.


Vitamin D may exacerbate autoimmune disease

Medicine & Health / Research

created Apr 08, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (9) | comments 4

Deficiency in vitamin D has been widely regarded as contributing to autoimmune disease, but a review appearing in Autoimmunity Reviews explains that low levels of vitamin D in patients with autoimmune disease may be a resu ...


Open Lid Reveals Mercury

Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry

created Oct 15, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Mercury, the silvery liquid formerly used in thermometers, is now known to be highly toxic. The worst of the toxins are organic mercury compounds, such as methylmercury. Most previous analytical procedures ...


Study: Cigarette smoking does not affect everyone in same way

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Jun 04, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 1

Cigarette smoking induced COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is a disease that results in severe breathing difficulty. According to World Health Organization (WHO) it is the fourth leading killer worldwide. However ...


Protein complementarity may offer new insights into autoimmune diseases

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Aug 13, 2008 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0

The discovery of "complementary" antibodies against plasminogen in patients with blood vessel inflammation caused by anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCAs) may lead to new approaches to research, testing, and ...


Stem cell transplant reverses early-stage multiple sclerosis

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Jan 30, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Researchers from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine appear to have reversed the neurological dysfunction of early-stage multiple sclerosis patients by transplanting their own immune stem cells into their ...


B cells can act alone in autoimmune disease

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Aug 07, 2008 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0

B cells, the source of damaging autoantibodies, have long been thought to depend upon T cells for their activation and were not considered important in the initiation of autoimmune diseases like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis.


Scientists find key culprits in lupus

Medicine & Health / Research

created Jun 29, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

The more than 1.5 million Americans with systemic lupus erythematosus (or lupus) suffer from a variety of symptoms that flare and subside, often including painful or swollen joints, extreme fatigue, skin rashes, fever, and ...


Lice can be nice to us

Biology / Evolution

created Apr 22, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Parasite infestations might have a good side. Wild mice from a Nottinghamshire forest have given experts at The University of Nottingham clues as to the importance of some parasites, such as lice, for the ...


Master gene that switches on disease-fighting cells identified by scientists

Master gene that switches on disease-fighting cells identified by scientists

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Sep 13, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- The master gene that causes blood stem cells to turn into disease-fighting 'Natural Killer' (NK) immune cells has been identified by scientists, in a study published in Nature Immunology today. ...


Factors from common human bacteria may trigger multiple sclerosis

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Current research suggests that a common oral bacterium may exacerbate autoimmune disease. The related report by Nichols et al, "Unique Lipids from a Common Human Bacterium Represent a New Class of TLR2 Ligands Capable of ...


Dendritic cells ensure immune tolerance

Medicine & Health / Research

created Mar 16, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Dendritic cells are essential to the body's immune defenses. Now, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen (Germany) researchers show that they also have to protect the body from itself: They help to identify any immune cells ...


'Buckyballs' to treat multiple sclerosis

'Buckyballs' to treat multiple sclerosis

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Mar 19, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

If you're of a certain age, you'll remember Buckminster Fuller's distinctive "geodesic domes" - soccer-ball-shaped structures that the late futurist envisioned as ideal human domiciles. Tel Aviv University ...


Gene regulates immune cells' ability to harm the body

Medicine & Health / Research

created Jul 17, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

A recently identified gene allows immune cells to start the self-destructive processes thought to underlie autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and rheumatoid arthritis, researchers at Washington University ...