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Autoimmune odyssey on the Aegean Sea

Nature Immunology volume 7, pages 219–221 (2006)Cite this article

The second Aegean conference on 'Autoimmunity: Mechanisms and Novel Treatments' in September, 2005, discussed topics ranging from animal models of autoimmunity to lymphocyte interactions, as well as molecular influences of disease.

Several investigators presented results on the multifarious nature of B cells in autoimmunity and in their ability to elicit tolerance, to initiate autoreactive responses and to perpetuate the autoimmune response. For example, B cells that present autoantigen are capable of eliciting T cell tolerance, as described by David Scott (Baltimore, USA) in mouse models of diabetes. In technically elegant studies, antigen was engineered into the N terminus of immunoglobulin and was transfected into antigen-presenting B lymphocytes. Those conditions allow only surface expression of the antigen with very little secreted, leading to induction of T cell tolerance. As in many other studies also presented, the induction of tolerance or autoimmunity in this system is dependent on the presence or absence of conventional B7 costimulation. This approach may also represent a new immunotherapeutic agent for tolerance induction in patients, although it is not yet apparent whether this therapy interferes with epitope spreading or whether tolerance is long lived.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, 06520-8031, Connecticut, USA

    Mark J Mamula

  2. Department of Surgery, Division of Transplantation, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, 21201, Maryland, USA

    Donna L Farber

  3. Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, 20910, Maryland, USA

    George C Tsokos

Authors
  1. Mark J Mamula
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  2. Donna L Farber
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  3. George C Tsokos
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Mamula, M., Farber, D. & Tsokos, G. Autoimmune odyssey on the Aegean Sea. Nat Immunol 7, 219–221 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni0306-219

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ni0306-219

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