I asked an A.I. on who is currently doing antigen specific research on autoimmune disease…

Arthuritis

Ie not just general suppression of the entire immune system … but towards a cure

just for a bit of geeky fun … and it came up with some answers …

Want to know?

frogmorton

YES!!!!

KazandNoo

Yes please!

Arthuritis

@frogmorton @KazandNoo Here you go! The following note was entirely composed by the A.I.:

“Prof. Ranjeny Thomas is an Australian researcher and rheumatologist who has made significant contributions to understanding the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and developing targeted treatments. She has been particularly interested in the role of dendritic cells in the immune system and how they can be harnessed to develop more specific therapies for autoimmune diseases like RA.

One of Prof. Thomas' most notable achievements is the development of a potential targeted therapy for RA called antigen-specific immunotherapy. This treatment aims to re-educate the immune system by using tolerogenic dendritic cells to induce immune tolerance, thereby preventing the immune system from attacking the body's own tissues, specifically the joints. This approach is different from the general suppression of the immune system, which has been the primary method of treating RA and can lead to various side effects and complications.

Prof. Thomas has presented her work at various conferences and events in the United States and around the world. Some of her presentations include:

1. The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Annual Meeting: Prof. Thomas has presented her research on targeted therapies for RA at this prestigious international conference, which brings together leading rheumatologists, researchers, and health professionals from around the world.
2. The Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) Annual Meeting: Prof. Thomas has also presented her work on dendritic cells and antigen-specific immunotherapy for RA at this conference, which focuses on advancements in clinical immunology.

1. Prof. David Wraith

• Affiliation: University of Bristol, UK
• Research Program: The Wraith Lab at the University of Bristol focuses on the development of antigen-specific immunotherapies for autoimmune diseases.
• Relevant publication: Larché, M., Wraith, D. C. (2005). Peptide-based therapeutic vaccines for allergic and autoimmune diseases. Nature Medicine, 11(4), S69-S76. 

1. Dr. Pere Santamaria

• Affiliation: University of Calgary, Canada
• Research Program: Santamaria Lab at the University of Calgary, focusing on understanding the molecular basis of autoimmunity and developing antigen-specific immunotherapies.
• Relevant publication: Clemente-Casares, X., Blanco, J., Ambalavanan, P., Yamanouchi, J., Singha, S., Fandos, C., ... & Santamaria, P. (2016). Expanding antigen-specific regulatory networks to treat autoimmunity. Nature, 530(7591), 434-440.

1. Prof. Edith Hessel

• Affiliation: GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), UK
• Research Program: Research at GSK focuses on the development of novel therapies for autoimmune diseases, including antigen-specific immunotherapies.
• Relevant publication: Hessel, E. M., & Menon, J. N. (2017). Tolerogenic dendritic cells and the quest for transplant tolerance. Nature Reviews Immunology, 17(8), 476-488.

1. Dr. Anne Fletcher

• Affiliation: Monash University, Australia
• Research Program: The Fletcher Lab at Monash University investigates the role of dendritic cells in the immune response and autoimmune diseases, focusing on developing new therapeutic strategies.
• Relevant publication: Fletcher, A. L., Malhotra, D., Turley, S. J. (2011). Lymph node stroma broaden the peripheral tolerance paradigm. Trends in Immunology, 32(1), 12-18.

Please note that some of these publications might not be directly focused on rheumatoid arthritis but are still highly relevant to the topic of dendritic cells and antigen-specific immunotherapy in autoimmune diseases.”

frogmorton

Blimey @Arthuritis

Mad isn't it?

Maybe though something in this lot might just be the start of a real 'fix'.

Toni x

KazandNoo

That's certainly food for thought. Thanks for that.

At my last biologics review ( I have psoriatic arthritis)I was asked if I wanted to take part in research into why some of us develop autoimmune conditions,I said yes, of course!. I had to fill in a couple of questionnaires and had several blood samples taken. I may or may not be contacted in the future (depends how exciting my blood is I suppose! )

Nfk_gal0617

Hi Arthuritis. Great idea, bit of serious fun.

I did quiete a lot of research before I could shug off a diagnosis of O A. for inflamatory arthritis by asked my G P for a certain blood test. Although I read the American research I allways take it with a large pinch of salt as there is always a large $ in the USA system. Sadly we are going the same way in the UK via the back door.

I do not blame anybody for opting for private hip ops etc if there are able to find the cash. You cannot put a price on quality of life. Sadly it does put some people futher down the list as Surgeons (often the same as NHS) are the limiting factor.

When will our NHS be saved?

Rant over, Nfk gal

Nfk_gal0617

Hi everybody, Just read my post! I don't mean that research is not valid, especial if double blind, just everything seems to come down to money nowadays and not necessarily quality of life. Nfk gal

Arthuritis

@Nfk_gal0617 No worries! As a senior NHS Rheumy told when I was first diagnosed, the pharmas have the cash, but there is no incentive to find a cure when treating “forever” with expensive biologics pads out their profit account so reliably. Worse, any researcher working on anything that would threaten that business either won’t get research funding from a pharma, or if they start making progress, will get redirected to something that is less harmful to the pharma’s wealth.

Of the tiny list above of people in the WHOLE WORLD working on targeted treatment (antigen specific), only Prof Ranjeny (Australia) had pure focus on autoimmune arthritis and presented her encouraging results. Shortly after her funding was not renewed for the next phase. She was instead offered funding to put her time into a cure for type 1 diabetes. While this is of course an important thing, she’d have to start from scratch, keeping her busy. It’s worth reading her papers in peer reviewed journals.

US research when it’s done, is well funded, sadly research is very expensive even in a University setting where you have PhDs working for nothing or peanuts, so they will always be ahead of us in many areas of STEM. It is why UK tech firms with a good idea choose to list their stock over there. We simply lack that spirit towards STEM.

As for saving our NHS, unfortunately what they need is spend efficiency, something that tax payer funded organisations almost always lack, both sides of the Atlantic. If they were as efficient as an Inc or PLC, there’s be enough for everyone. At present for every £1 spent on the NHS, quite a lot less results in actual patient benefit. I don’t know the actual figure yet (I will see if anyone has done a study, I think the Kings Fund might have). Take for example, the NHS claim that it loses £1 billion a year (just think how big that number is) on no-show appointments, blaming patients for this and suggesting ideas like charging for booking appointments at £10 each. Now if you have ever attempted to rebook a commercial hotel, doctor, hospital, meeting room etc even half way round the world, you can do it in seconds with a confirmation of your new appt with your smartphone or even ordinary phone. Not so with your local NHS clinic or hospital. You have to get in line on a never ending phone queue, and occasionally there is a website that you can fill a form at and hope somebody will read it on time, and depending on the hospital you may have to do this with 3 diff receptionists main, departmental, consultant and sometimes ancillary. They all run different systems that do not talk to each other because each head of dept runs a little fiefdom where they will not use something they didn’t choose. So a common NHS wide system for even simple non rocket science stuff like booking appointments does not exist. I am linked to 2 different hospitals for different things plus my local surgery, and they all use different systems! The running joke was for decades the NHS was the world’s biggest fax user and buyer, as that was the only IT thing Trusts had in common. Don’t even get me started on the 100 million+ wasted on failed IT systems. My local NHS hospitals (both of them) have piles of expensive NHS tech ready for scrap, like their automated check-in QR code scanning machines. Airlines have done really well, but NHS instead of learning from these, invented their own. Suppliers are dying laughing because they can fleece the NHS by negotiating separately with each trust, and having NDAs preventing a trust discussing the pricing or contract details, eg allowing them to flog junk a trust may not need by bundling it with stuff they do need. To my knowledge there is no central purchasing or operational efficiency body that say, a commercial company would have. But as another frustrated senior consultant at a London hospital once said at an NHS conference… “Where there is retirement, there is hope!”. (Ie the fiefdom big cheese that are resistant to improvement as it would impact their standing with pharmas).

rant off 😉

Nfk_gal0617

That I can believe, with a retired hubby, who worked in local gov, cumbersome systems were the norm. Sadly not many people take an interest in taking notice of the feet on the ground unless its for a step up.

I have difficulty getting the Eye clinic to talk to the Rheumatology clinic in the same hosp about the same underlying cause. My questions are batted off as the other's responibility.

Thanks for pointing out Prof Ranjeny, I'll look when I get a mo. Lets hope the research into type 1 diabetes has some spin off into all areas of auto immunity. Nfk gal

Trish9556

Hi @Arthuritis

I must say I agree wholeheartedly on your comments regarding the NHS wasting their money.

I could add to those the contractors are paid to do the "cleaning" and other maintenance. My question on this has always been Why? I don't believe it's cheaper to call out a contractor to change a lightbulb or repair a piece of equipment when these are done far more efficiently by in house staff. Cleaners employed to a specific ward and employed by the hospital will always do a better job and have more pride in their work if they know they might not be in that ward the next day so why bother?

I appreciate that hospitals on the whole are much cleaner post covid but whenever I see agency staff wandering aimlessly around hospitals it makes my blood boil.

Agreed also that they should go back to central purchasing monitored in house by a stores manager. Everything has a bar code these days so monitoring and reordering SHOULD be a simple task. If supermarkets can automatically replenish stocks based upon what goes through the warehouse and out via the tills I'm sure the NHS could use the same proven software?

I'm a retired PA with a reputation for excelling at systems and organisation and inefficiency anywhere really annoys me. I often think if only I could spend a week there sorting them out lol.

One day, hopefully, someone like me will!

Love n hugs

Trish xx

Arthuritis

@Trish9556 If driving efficiency is something that motivates you then the NHS would likely make you just explode! Precovid there were huge number of young clinicians I’d meet at NHS conferences all looking to leave the org because they are so fed up of the internal red tape blocking improvement and the fiefdoms. It really needs overhaul.

@Nfk_gal0617 Sad but true.

Arthuritis

@frogmorton we live in hope!