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Autoimmunity is a process by which the immune system reacts against the body's own tissues. Chronic and/or excessive autoimmune responses can result in autoimmune diseases.
In this Review, the authors analyze evidence for autoimmunity against components of antimicrobial immunity, metaphorically represented by the mythical ouroboros snake eating its own tail.
Granzyme serine proteases are known for their perforin-dependent cytotoxic activities, but evidence also indicates that they have a range of non-cytotoxic, pro-inflammatory intracellular and extracellular functions. In this Review, the authors discuss granzyme biology with an emphasis on its involvement in rheumatic disease pathology.
Multidimensional and single-cell profiling of peripheral blood and inflamed tissues is a powerful and high-resolution tool for the stratification of patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases into distinct cellular and/or molecular endotypes. The road towards precision rheumatology is long, but the time has come to enter the territory of clinical validation.
Autoantibodies that develop in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) can cause long-term cognitive impairment that remains even after the systemic disease becomes quiescent. This study attributes the persistent cognitive symptoms of SLE to a self-sustaining neuroinflammatory process that continues indefinitely unless disrupted — which can be done using medications approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.