A healthy immune system protects us from pathogens while averting damage to healthy cells. But if the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells instead, autoimmunity can follow.
To prevent this from happening, our bodies have a set of protective processes known as “immune tolerance” that naturally prevent the immune system from attacking healthy tissue. Some immune tolerance processes act during the earliest signals of immune responses against the body, reducing the risk of autoimmunity. Other immune tolerance processes act later, redirecting immune responses to prevent excess inflammation and tissue damage. Interactions between the immune system and its environment—including harmless microbes and microbes that cause disease—as well as a person’s genetics may influence immune tolerance.
To help clarify what drives the onset and progression of autoimmune disease, NIAID supports research on immune tolerance processes, the factors that regulate them, and how they go awry in autoimmunity. This information could help scientists devise better strategies to prevent, delay, or suppress autoimmune disease.