New Predictors of Disease

Autoimmune diseases constitute the third leading cause of sickness and death, behind only heart disease and cancer. There are more than forty known autoimmune diseases including type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. These diseases and others may soon be predicted and therefore, prevented almost ten years in advance. Antibodies directed against a body's own tissues and cells, called autoantibodies, can sometimes be created many years before clinical symptoms begin. By detecting these autoantibodies, doctors will be able to predict, to a certain extent, the likliehood that a disease will arise in the future.

Scientists first discovered the possibility of predictive autoantibodies when studying type 1 diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. After a disease is classified as "autoimmune", scientists can begin hunting for that disease's specific autoantigens . The autoantigens are the specific molecules that the autoantibodies target. Three autoantigens were subsequently discovered for type 1 Diabetes. With one of these corresponding autoantibodies, a patient has a 10 percent risk of exhibiting symptoms in the next five years; with two, a 50 percent chance; and with all three known autoantibodies, the risk raises to between 60 to 80 percent. This is not only good for its inherent predictive information, but it can also help researchers narrow down a field of subjects for preventive therapy testing. In the case of another autoimmune disease, however, preventive medicines have already been discovered. An autoantibody has been found to be present in 30-70 percent of patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis up to 10 years before clinical problems arose. Early or even preemptive treatment of this disease could severely slow the symptoms of this arthritis.
Other uses for these predictive autoantibodies include:to avoid known triggers in the environment for an autoimmune disease likely to develop; to gauge the rate and severity of an existing autoimmune disease; and to reveal diseases, previously thought not to be autoimmune, as autoimmune. Much more research needs to be done on these autoanitbodies and theit autoimmune diseases before they can be implemented into hospitals and doctor offices, but, in the near future, an autoantibody screening may become as standard as checking blood pressure.

I found this article to be very interesting not only because of the biological information presented, but also because it showed an insight into the research involved in order to use the newly discovered information. I guess I underestimate the amount of research that must be done before any action can be taken. Also the new information brings up ideas for new technology that must be designed, manufactured, and than sold at a cheap price in order for the benefits reach the masses.This is a side of science that you don't often see, and it was interesting to get a glimpse of that.