July 6, 2008

NIAMS Scientists Find Potential New Way to Block Inflammation in Autoimmune Disease
Researchers from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), a part of the NIH, have identified a promising new target for autoimmune disease treatment — a cell-surface receptor called DR3. Their research in mice, published on line in the journal Immunity, suggests that blocking this receptor could slow or stop the damaging inflammation characteristic of autoimmune diseases, potentially without leaving the body vulnerable to serious infections, as many current therapies do.

Working with mouse models of asthma and multiple sclerosis, both immune system diseases, the researchers found that mice engineered to lack DR3 were resistant to those diseases. "The implication is that blocking DR3 in mice, and possibly in humans, is a potential therapy for these diseases and perhaps others in which the immune system goes awry," said Richard Siegel, M.D., Ph.D., a scientist in the NIAMS' Immunoregulation Group, who led the research effort.

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