The Possible Future of Auto-Imune Disorders

Everyone deals with colds, flu’s, and other sicknesses. When all of our external defenses against sickness fail, there’s only one defense left; Our Immune System. The human immune system is a series of specialized cells and organs that defend our bodies from pathogens or invaders. When an “invader” starts wreaking havoc on our bodies, one response is for our insides to produce an anti-body. One problem, anti-bodies take time to develop in which case, our T cells respond. In some rare cases though, the body can’t tell the difference between itself and a pathogen, in which case the body makes an autoantibody which attacks normal body cells instead. When that happens, the T cells also fail to keep our immune systems healthy. All of those mistakes will most likely lead to an autoimmune disease, and with over 80 known types, it turns into a guessing game.

Although there are a large amount of autoimmune diseases, some of the most common that we know of today include asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, and type one diabetes, We all know asthma is a swelling of the inside walls of our lungs making it difficult to breathe, but asthma can act up causing an asthma attack. Asthma attacks are deadly because they can restrict the airways and block air from reaching our lungs. Inflammatory bowel disease is a disorder in which there is chronic inflammation of the digestive tract. The most common symptoms will include abdominal pain, and bloody and runny stool. Type one diabetes is also very common but not everyone knows what it is. It’s defined as a condition when the immune system attacks insulin making cells. And that’s a pretty big deal, considering that insulin controls our blood sugar levels. All of this turns into a vicious cycle in which your body can no longer produce insulin. Symptoms include Thirsty, urinating often, hungry and tied often, weight loss, and blurry eyesight. Typically there is no definite cure for these conditions, just maintenance drugs to keep it under control.

Scientists at the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, have discovered a molecule. And this isn’t a regular molecule, it’s called “alpha v beta 6,” which is used to keep our immune systems from overreacting when food passes on through. Scientists say it’s the key to treating almost all autoimmune disorders. Found in mice originally, they produced it when they were absorbing food. The molecule along with the food pushes the body to make tolerant immune cells. I’m not entirely sure how to interpret this, but scientists say it will lead to future leaps in medicine.

With all of this in mind I’m wondering, without extensive testing on the molecule, can we really be certain it would treat disorders? How would we administer a treatment with the molecule? With around 23.5 million Americans with an Auto immune disorder, how could we possibly mass produce a molecule?

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