The immune system and autoimmune diseases?

The human body has a number of defence mechanisms (immunological) that enable it to fight off enemies that attack our organism. It is assisted in this by cytokines, chemokines, B lymphocytes, antibodies, mucous membranes and lysozyme. The way they are linked and the functions they perform are very complex. Their main and primary function is to destroy bacteria, parasites or viruses that have entered our body.
Unfortunately, there are cases when the immune system does not work properly and starts destroying its own healthy cells. When this happens, we are dealing with the process of autoimmunity (when the immune system acts against its own antigens). Underlying this process are a number of diseases that we call autoimmune.

Autoimmune diseases and the factors leading to their development

At one time, not much was known about autoimmune diseases. To this day, the exact mechanisms of their development or treatments are not known. Among the most frequently mentioned are multiple sclerosis, vitiligo, pernicious anaemia, diabetes mellitus, Graves Basedow's disease, thyroiditis or rheumatoid arthritis. These occur about three times more often in women than in men. The search is on for the factors that lead to a disturbed tolerance mechanism, the consequence of which are autoimmune diseases?

Factors leading to the development of autoimmune diseases are increasingly mentioned:

• infectious factors, where the phenomenon is explained by the theory of molecular mimicry,
• genetic factors (predisposition) and more specifically the relationship between major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules,
• the age and sex of the patient,
• the drugs taken, although the mechanism of action is not known,
• immune deficiencies,
• past illnesses and others.

Each patient with an autoimmune disease must be treated individually. The search for causes leading to the development of autoimmune diseases is still ongoing.