Autoimmunity
Interview with Alessio Fasano, MD on the Future of Finding a Cure for Celiac Disease
Alessio Fasano, MD is the world’s leading researcher and voice of science on the interplay between celiac disease, gluten and autoimmunity. He is dedicated to helping celiac patients improve their quality of life, as well as researching a cure for the autoimmune disease. In this interview with Craig Gustafson, fromRead
Clues Connect Estrogen and Autoimmune Disease
There is a phenomenon that scientists have yet to solve, regardless of whether a woman lives in the United States, where medical care is relatively good, or third world nations, where medical care is often scarce: women are less likely to die from infectious diseases than men. The lower death rate has been attributed to a beneficial, yet unexplained effect estrogen has on the immune system. Females of child-bearing age are more resistant to infectious disease and have an increased risk of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). This study hypothesized that estrogen-induced gene expression could establish an immunoactivated state which would render enhanced defense against infection, but may be deleterious in autoimmune development.By Nicholas A. Young, Lai-Chu Wu, et al, Estrogen modulation of endosome-associated toll-like receptor 8: An IFNα-independent mechanism of sex-bias in systemic lupus erythematosus. Clinical Immunology, March 2014
