What Is Autoimmune Disease: Its Cause, Effects, and Treatment

The world is progressing at a fast rate and the lifestyle of the people are also changing because of this. With the changing lifestyle, the number of diseases are also increasing. Some are referred to as the modern day epidemic due to the sharp rise in the number of cases in recent times. One such, but lesser known condition is the autoimmune disorder. But, what is an autoimmune disorder? It is a condition which arises when a normal body part gives an abnormal immune response. The autoimmune disease can affect almost every body parts. The common symptoms that can be seen are feeling tired, low-grade fever and there are other such symptoms. However, they do not persist for long. The cause of this disease is generally unknown.

A road towards treating autoimmune disease

What is an autoimmune disorder?

It is a condition when the immune system attacks your body by mistake. Generally, the immune system protects the body against any kind of germs such as bacteria and viruses. They send an army of fighter cells to attack if they sense that a foreign invader has invaded the body. The immune system has the capacity to distinguish between your cells and any foreign cells.

However, in an autoimmune disorder, the immune system fails to recognize your body part. It mistakes parts of your body such as joints or skin as a foreign source. Therefore, attack them by releasing proteins known as autoantibodies that attack the healthy cells. There are some autoimmune diseases that only targets one organ such as Type 1 diabetes only damages the pancreas but lupus affects the entire body.

What is an autoimmune disease?

Autoimmune disease is basically a group of diseases that exhibit a similar phenomenon. Let us find out more about some diseases that fall under the category.

1.       Type 1 diabetes

To regulate the blood sugar level pancreas produces the hormone insulin. In type 1 diabetes the immune system attacks the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas and destroys them. This results in high blood sugar which damages blood vessels and other organs such as kidney, nerve, heart, and eyes.

2.       Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)

In this type of arthritis, the immune system attacks the joints. The symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis are stiffness in the joints, redness, soreness, and warmth.

People can get affected by the RA arthritis at their mid age, unlike osteoarthritis which affects people as they get older.

3.       Systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus)

The Systemic lupus erythematosus is commonly known as lupus. Although when this disease was first discovered doctors described is as skin diseases owing to its symptom which is rash. Lupus actually has the capability to affect many organs including the brain, joints, heart, and kidney. The most common symptoms of lupus are rashes, fatigue, and joint pain.

How is the autoimmunity disease treatment possible?

Traditionally the therapy that was used to suppress the autoimmune disease was to rely on immunosuppressive medications that entirely reduces the immune responses. This treatment has been highly effective for many patients and therefore it is still known as the “gold standard” of care. However, some patients may require long-term treatments that requires administering high doses of immunosuppressant over extended time-period to keep the disease at bay. However, this leaves the patients vulnerable to other life-threatening infections. In addition to this, these drugs can also have serious side effects. Thus, there is a requirement for more developed and specific strategies that will lower the risk of immune suppression and improve tolerability. The best therapy for autoimmunity would be when it achieves these four main goals:

·         Re-establish immune tolerance which will stay stable over time, and continuous or long-term therapy won’t be necessary.

·         Has low toxicity and few side effects.

·         Specifically targets the pathogenic cells leaving the remaining system to function normally

·         Cost-effective when compared to alternative methods.

Global human microbiome market

The global human microbiome market has ample needs which are yet to get fulfilled and owing to this the market has high potential to grow. As the importance of diagnosis is increasing along with the treatment of various underrated diseases the market is set to emerge as a profitable business in the forecasted period.

Currently, the market is at a very nascent phase as most of the therapies are at the clinical stage. The diagnosis technology is also developing, and the major companies have started to allot funds for the research and development for their advanced class of therapies. All these factors will boost the growth of the market in the upcoming years.

At the forefront of the human microbiome market are the following major organizations:

·         Vedanta Bioscience

·         Synthetic Biologic Inc.

·         Second Genome

·         uBiome Inc.

·         Seres Therapeutic

More researches on the life science industry & solutions on autoimmunity disease and more are available for further study.

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