Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases

Current therapies for autoimmune diseases are not cures but merely palliatives, aimed at reducing symptoms to provide the patient with an acceptable quality of life. Immunosuppressive drugs (e.g., corticosteroids, azathioprine and cyclophosphamide) are often given with the intent of slowing proliferation of lymphocytes. By depressing the immune response in general, such drugs can reduce the severity of autoimmune symptoms. The general reduction in immune responsiveness however puts the patient at greater risk for infection or the development of cancer. A somewhat more selective approach employs Cyclosporin A or FK506 to treat autoimmunity. These agents block signal transduction mediated by the T-Cell receptor; thus, they inhibit only antigen-activated T-Cells while sparing non-activated ones. For the most part, these treatments provide non-specific suppression of the immune system and thus do not distinguish between a pathologic autoimmune response and a productive immune response.