Elaborate on the mechanism of development of any one auto immune disease.
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Abstract
The pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases involves a breach of immune tolerance, although many mechanisms may contribute to the generation of such a phenomenon. As is the case with many diseases, it is widely accepted that some combinations of genetic and environmental factors influence the development of autoimmunity. It has become evident that changes in DNA and DNA–protein structure may influence how genes are expressed in the absence of any mutations in sequence. This is the phenomenon of epigenetics, and with the discovery of this mechanism by which gene expression is regulated, an entire new realm of science has been created to treat and diagnose diseases. Because the spectrum of autoimmune diseases is so broad, and because autoimmune diseases involve so many different cellular and molecular derangements, the use of epigenetic techniques to modify gene expression has shown great promise in the development of new therapies for autoimmune diseases. In particular, the variability in the phenotypes of autoimmune diseases is an indication that not all patients suffering from the same autoimmune disease have identical triggers or pathogenesis. If the precise derangement can be isolated, and epigenetic principles applied, then diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of the disease become a customizable management plan for the individual patient. This is the promise of personalized epigenetics, but to get there, we need to increase and improve our knowledge of the individual pathogenesis of disease for each patient, and we are still quite far from achieving this. Meanwhile, we embark on a discussion of what is currently feasible using epigenetic treatment of autoimmune disease and offer an early look at what may be possible in the future.