nature | The incidence of autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and
type 1 diabetes, has spiked in developed countries in recent decades. In
three studies published today in Nature, researchers describe the molecular pathways that can lead to autoimmune disease1 and identify one possible culprit that has been right under our noses — and on our tables — the entire time: salt2, 3.
To stay healthy, the human body relies on a careful
balance: too little immune function and we succumb to infection, too
much activity and the immune system begins to attack healthy tissue, a
condition known as autoimmunity. Some forms of autoimmunity have been
linked to overproduction of TH17 cells, a type of helper T cell that produces an inflammatory protein called interleukin-17.
But finding the molecular switches that cause the body to overproduce TH17
cells has been difficult, in part because conventional methods of
activating native immune cells in the laboratory often harm the cells or
alters the course of their development. Fist tap Dale.
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