A new study examined the possible associations between occupation and the risk of dying from systemic autoimmune diseases and found that occupational exposures in farming and industry may be linked to higher death rates from these diseases.

Two new large-scale genomic studies have honed in on the main genetic pathway associated with multiple sclerosis (MS), while also uncovering new genetic variations in the disease and suggesting a possible link between MS and other autoimmune diseases.

A gene discovered by scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine has been linked to lupus and related autoimmune diseases. The finding, reported in the current issue of Nature Genetics, is the latest in a series of revelations that shed new light on what goes wrong in human cells to cause the diseases.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere say they have mapped out an escape route that cancers use to evade the body’s immune system, allowing the disease to spread unchecked.

4SC AG (Frankfurt, Prime Standard: VSC) reported positive results for its drug candidate SC12267 in a preclinical proof of concept study for the treatment of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases. In addition to the indication of rheumatoid arthritis, which is presently evaluated in a clinical phase IIa study, the company is thus opening up a further important autoimmune disease indication for this agent, which may significantly increase the substance's market potential.

An important finding, which could eventually lead to a new therapeutic approach for treating autoimmune and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, colitis, psoriasis and others, was announced today by researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology (LIAI).

The immune system's ability to police itself may offer a new method of arresting the cells responsible for autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and for the rejection of transplanted organs and tissues, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report in a study in the May issue of the journal Immunity and which will be available online on May 17, 12 noon ET.

Rheumatology researchers have discovered that a well-known cell receptor sends a signal to dampen the immune system.

A glucosamine-like dietary supplement has been found to suppress the damaging autoimmune response seen in multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes mellitus, according to University of California, Irvine health sciences researchers.

A chronic autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is marked by inflammation that takes a progressive toll on not only the joints, but also various organs and the whole body. RA sufferers, as many studies have shown, tend to face a high risk for early death, increasing with the severity of their symptoms. The most prevalent cause of death among RA patients is cardiovascular disease.

Autoimmune diseases such as type I diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis are caused by the immune system attacking the body's own tissues. Determining the factors that trigger the immune system to attack is an area of intensive research.

New insights could lead to better vaccines, treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, study suggests