When the Body Fights Itself (by accident)

The immune system is supposed to be the body's defense mechanism, but for some individuals, it's their biggest vulnerability. It’s an attacking mechanism that unfortunately we fail to put up a battle against. This mechanism takes its status as an autoimmune disease.

The Science Behind Autoimmune Diseases

Autoimmune diseases arise from the malfunction of the immune system. Instead of attacking foreign invaders like pathogens, the immune system (white blood cells like B-cells and T-cells) attack healthy cells. This causes the body to fight back, responding with symptoms similar to when the body fights against deadly pathogens. Depending on the cells, tissues or organs being attacked, the body can exhibit a range of responses from permanent tissue damage & organ dysfunction to suppressing certain bodily functions in order to reduce the damage done, putting strain on specific organs.

The development of autoimmune diseases is multifactorial and to this day still being researched. However, scientists believe they could stem from genetic predispositions, or environmental factors such as exposure to physical trauma or exposure to high levels of toxic chemicals.

One proposed strongly supported hypothesis on the causation of such diseases is the escape theory. A T-cell (white blood cells part of the immune system) develops in the thymus. As soon as it has formed, the body runs a negative selection test on it. This test checks the cells functional ability in defending the body by checking how much it can bind to a specific bodily molecule. If the cell binds too tightly, it is eliminated as it is believed to have the potential to attack the body. The ones that bind “normally” are kept. However, sometimes, even t-cells that bind strongly can escape this test. Their escape means some reactive t-cells end up surviving, setting the scene for the development of an autoimmune disease.  

Living with an Autoimmune Disease

As of now there are 80-100 medically recognized autoimmune diseases, but many remain barely researched, rare and debated. Some of the most common ones include:

• Rheumatoid arthritis: immune system attacks tissue linking joints causing joint inflammation 

• Hashimoto's thyroid (develops into hypothyroidism): immune system attacks thyroid gland, an important organ that controls the bodies metabolism 

• Type 1 diabetes: immune system destroys cells controlling sugar levels, causing weight loss, hunger and frequent urination 

While the specifics of each disease varies, living with an autoimmune disease is a shared extremely painful and tiring experience.

Lupus, or systemic lupus erythematosus is a rare autoimmune disease where the immune system fights against different kinds of healthy cells all over the body. Anna, a 29 year old Chinese nurse, is a victim of this disease.

Progression first started off as small pimples that turned into large lumps, along with excessive fatigue and severe joint pain. After diagnosis, Anna’s symptoms worsened. She constantly felt the need to cover up her face, became extremely sensitive to the sun and felt isolated from the rest of her community. This unpredictable disease caged her mentally and physically, and she could not talk to anyone about it because no one could relate to her.

Now, still suffering from the disease, she tries to live her life as normal, but faces profound internal struggle. No one understands what she is going through and she feels the need to maintain privacy to avoid judgement.

The Way Forward

In order to help people like Anna, biotechnologists are working to find long-lasting cures for such diseases. However, as of now no medication is able to cure or prevent autoimmune diseases due to our extremely limited knowledge on its causation. There are, however, medical options that suppress the immune system from going rogue.

Most patients take a mixture of medication. This mixture often includes ant-inflammatory drugs and immunosuppressants (suppress immune system activity). For hormone deficiency related autoimmune diseases, hormone replacement therapy tablets are prescribed to patients. The prescription of these drugs still remains a contentious topic due to the risks associated with it, but they essentially restore hormone balance by prompting the production of the deficient hormone.

Current research on cures for autoimmune diseases also entail of quite interesting solutions such as stem cell therapy and advanced personalised medication, but none of which has undergone commercialisation or approval.

Autoimmune diseases illustrate the consequences of immune dysregulation. Our lack of knowledge on the science behind it, but our extensive knowledge on the burden of such diseases highlights the gap we need to fill by conducting further research. Until we are able to find long-lasting cures, supporting individuals like Anna and spreading awareness as a community should be a priority.

References

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Klein, J. (2020). A list of autoimmune diseases and their symptoms. [online] Medicalnewstoday.com. Available at: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/list-of-autoimmune-diseases#joints [Accessed 30 Nov. 2025].

Klein, L., Kyewski, B., Allen, P.M. and Hogquist, K.A. (2014). Positive and negative selection of the T cell repertoire: what thymocytes see (and don’t see). Nature Reviews Immunology, [online] 14(6), pp.377–391. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/nri3667.

organ@admin (2018). 10 Things You Should Know About Immunosuppressants - Organ India. [online] Organ India. Available at: https://www.organindia.org/10-things-you-should-know-about-immunosuppressants/ [Accessed 30 Nov. 2025].

Rosenblum, M.D., Remedios, K.A. and Abbas, A.K. (2015). Mechanisms of human autoimmunity. Journal of Clinical Investigation, [online] 125(6), pp.2228–2233. doi:https://doi.org/10.1172/jci78088.

Takaba, H. and Takayanagi, H. (2017). The Mechanisms of T Cell Selection in the Thymus. Trends in Immunology, [online] 38(11), pp.805–816. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.it.2017.07.010.

Zheng Huangfu (2020). Life course changes provoked by chronic disease: A study on everyday life for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. International Journal of Nursing Sciences, [online] 7(Suppl 1), pp.S31–S37. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnss.2020.05.006.