Infection-Fighting Protein Could Be Key To Autoimmune Disease, Say University of Michigan Scientists

Scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School have discovered that a protein called cryopyrin responds to invading bacteria by triggering the activation of a powerful inflammatory molecule called IL-1beta, which signals the immune system to attack pathogens and induces fever to protect the body against infection. The discovery could help scientists understand what causes autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis where the immune system attacks and destroys tissue in the patient’s body. “IL-1beta is a master regulator of infection, and it’s known to be involved in the development of rheumatoid arthritis,” says Gabriel Nunez, M.D., a professor of pathology in the U-M Medical School, who directed the research study. “So it’s likely that these findings will apply to other autoimmune diseases, as well.” In a study being published Jan. 11 as an Advance Online Publication in Nature, U-M scientists show, for the first time, that cryopyrin is activated by bacterial RNA and that it is essential to the cell’s ability to mount an effective defense against bacteria.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC