Autoimmune diseases are widespread and notoriously difficult to treat. In part, this is because why the immune system attacks its own tissues in patients with these conditions remains poorly understood.
Autoimmune diseases develop when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks its own tissues instead of fighting off foreign invaders like bacteria or viruses. However, it has long been a mystery why this happens, as the immune system has many checks and balances to make sure that it only reacts to ‘non-self’ triggers.
“Our findings demonstrate that T cells discriminate self- and neoself-antigens and do not recognize neoself-antigens as self antigens, thus leading to the development of autoimmunity when neoself-antigens are presented on MHC-II.”
Neoself-antigens are the primary target for autoreactive T cells in human lupus