The Importance of Autoimmune Disease Research
An estimated 23.5 million Americans are affected by autoimmune diseases. Well-known autoimmune diseases include Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Graves’ Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and Rheumatoid Arthritis. The causes of many autoimmune diseases remain unknown, and there is no cure or single treatment for every person or autoimmune disease.
What are the goals of Autoimmune Disease research?
Some of the latest studies focus on common mechanisms related to the causes and factors of autoimmune diseases. According to a congressionally-mandated 2022 report by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (1), areas of autoimmune disease cure research opportunity include the following:
Genetics: Identifying mechanisms underlying genotype–phenotype associations can help researchers better understand the role of genes in autoimmune diseases.
Environmental exposure: Understanding exposures associated with diseases, in addition to the permutations of genes and environmental exposures that lead to autoimmune diseases may enable researchers to better target treatment
Biomarkers: Traditional and novel biomarkers may enable disease prediction, ultimately delaying or preventing disease before clinical disease develops or modifying disease outcomes.
Sex: Understanding the role that sex chromosomes, sex hormones, and the effects of environmental exposures on sex hormones have on the occurrence and pathogenesis of autoimmune disease.
Autoimmune disease complications: Examining the patterns of complications may inform the understanding of pathophysiology and mechanistic pathways as well as approaches to patient care.
Mechanistic pathways as therapeutic targets: Identifying additional proinflammatory signaling pathways and their cytokines may inform drug development.
Animal models of disease: Developing improved animal models of disease can continue to define common genetic and environmentally induced mechanisms.
What are big questions that have yet to be answered?
While research has made strides, understanding the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease and the events that provoke autoimmunity have been a major challenge. One article looked at some of the biggest questions that remain to be solved when it comes to the pathogenic mechanisms of autoimmune disorders. According to the researchers, those questions are: How is autoimmunity triggered? What components of the immune response drive the clinical manifestations of disease? What determines whether a genetically predisposed individual will develop an autoimmune disease? And is restoring immune tolerance the secret to finding cures for autoimmune disease? (2)
Approximately how much money is spent on AD research?
The National Institute of Health (NIH), a key source of funding for auto-immune research, dedicates resources to areas including pre-clinical, clinical, biomedical, health services, behavioral and social research. Current support for autoimmune disease funding by the NIH was estimated to be around $1 billion in 2022. As a percentage of overall NIH obligations, spending on autoimmune diseases has remained at 2.6 percent between 2013 and 2020. (1)
What are clinical studies?
NIH defines a clinical trial as a research study in which one or more human subjects are assigned to one or more “interventions.” The effects of those interventions on health and behavior are then studied. In many studies, neither the patient nor the doctor know what, if any, treatment is being received.
According to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, from 2008 to 2020, there has been a greater percentage of clinical trials for autoimmune diseases including Type 1 diabetes, systemic lupus erythematosus, IBD, and rheumatoid arthritis, with a much smaller percentage seen for other autoimmune diseases.
Inflammatory disorders of the brain, for example, are some of the most under-researched areas in neuroimmunology. “Some ongoing efforts are some of the first clinical trials seeking to understand which mitigation is actually best for these conditions,” said Elena Grebenciucova, an assistant professor of neurology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
What is the benefit of patient participation?
Clinical trials are a key way researchers determine how to reduce the effects of autoimmune diseases. Trials often show whether treatment is safe and effective and what side effects or complications may look like.
To find out how you can participate, go to the NIH website.
Sources
- Article Sources
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2022). Enhancing NIH Research on Autoimmune Disease. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Smilek DE, St Clair EW (2015). Solving the puzzle of autoimmunity: critical questions. F1000Prime Rep ;7:17.
