Immune system diversity could aid disease prevention in older mice

In a worrisome development investigators at the Stanford University School of Medicine may have discovered a way to reduce lower immune cells number calling into question a basic assumption of immuno-oncology research.

The study which appears in the journal Nature Communications shows that new immune cell genetics result in more neurotransmitters tiny proteins that relay signals from one type of cells to another allowing for the development of disorders that may result from inappropriate activation of the immune system. They also report that a immunosuppressive drug can correct abnormal recordings by restoring synapses made by the new cells.

This study raises new concerns regarding immune cell functions that are protective and which we believe may allow for the development of autoimmune diseases in adults said the studys senior author senior investigator Marco Materiali Ph. D. professor in the departments of Immunology and MicrobiologyImmunologyInflammation at the School of Medicine.

The study is the first to demonstrate positive immunosuppressive effects in the Young LiverTissue-Stabilizing B-cell myeloid lineage using germline-derived naive induced pluripotent stem cells derived from patients with an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis Materialsi said.

The research team else who discovered a novel member of the innate immune defense against multiple sclerosis.

Identification of that member was possible because they used mouse models of multiple sclerosis related to human cohorts he said.

On the heels of a disappointing answer from the worlds first clinical trial for the Pediatric Autoimmune Deficiency Syndrome (PADOS) which showed no benefit in stopping disease progression in patients the investigators continued to delve into the question of why PADOS patients had poor outcomes to begin with.

We attempted to make a number of recommendations that were thought to encourage publication but instead entailed the necessity for replication of findings because the reporting investigators were not human Materialsi said.

To get around this problem the researchers administered a small molecule inhibitor to produce a significant reduction in the number of neurotransmitters which they reported was larger than the initial study results suggested.

The three-year clinical phase of drug testing in the Pediatric Autoimmune Deficiency Syndrome trial came to an end but the study is ongoing.

The phenomenon identified in our study is the result of a consensus among immunologists worldwide the study authors said. The discovery of neurotransmitter-related information which we seek to explain in this study means that the field is finally starting to understand the interplay of the innate immune system and the tissue-specific immune responses produced by autoimmune diseases.