Ongoing research on an enzyme, IDO, has shown a lot of promise in being able to treat autoimmune disorders, A.N. Malaviya, former Professor and Head of Medicine and chief of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology Services, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, said.
IDO, which is present in the peripheral mechanism, is likely to emerge as the drug for the future to control autoimmune diseases, Dr. Malaviya explained. Further research would have to validate these initial results.
Auto immune disorders are caused when the body's immune system begins attacking its own cells, mistaking them to be foreign.
Normally, the immune system can differentiate between self and non-self cells, and is tasked with attacking the latter, which may consist of viruses and bacteria. However, if, at any point, the immune system stops tolerating the body's own tissues, and begins attacking them, then the person develops autoimmune disorder.
He was delivering the First Vice-Chancellor Dr. Lalitha Kameswaran Felicitation Committee Endowment Oration on ‘Recent advances in autoimmunity and autoimmune diseases,' at Sri Ramachandra University here on Saturday.
Dr. Malaviya also indicated that since he set up the Centre for Autoimmune Diseases at the AIIMS, the number of cases had risen steadily. He traced a link between increasing urbanisation, industrialisation, and the resultant pollution increasing the incidence of autoimmune diseases/disorders in the population.
S.P. Thyagarajan, Pro-Chancellor (Research), S. Rangaswami, Vice-Chancellor, S. Anandan, Dean, Medical College of Sri Ramachandra University, and A.N. Chandra Sekaran, chairman, felicitation committee, were among those who spoke. S. Kameswaran, senior ENT surgeon and husband of the late Lalitha Kameswaran, was present.
