Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 21, Issue 18, 2015

Autoimmune diseases are a group of disorders mediated by self-reactive T cells and/or autoantibodies. Mice, as the most widely used animal for modeling autoimmune disorders, have been extensively used in the investigation of disease pathogenesis as well as in the search for novel therapeutics. Since the first mouse model of multiple sclerosis was established more than 60 years ago, hundreds of mouse models hav Read More

This article reviews the commonly used murine strains for studying lupus and lupus nephritis, including strains that develop lupus spontaneously, congenic strains, induced models of lupus, as well as genetically engineered mouse models of lupus bearing transgenes or knockouts. The review then summarizes the main cellular and molecular pathways that lead to the pathogenesis of this autoimmune disease, including autoant Read More

Sjogren’s syndrome (SjS) is a chronic autoimmune disorder characterized by immune cell infiltration and progressive injury to the salivary and lacrimal glands. As a consequence, patients with SjS develop xerostomia (dry mouth) and keratoconjunctivitis sicca (dry eyes). SjS is the third most common rheumatic autoimmune disorder, affecting 4 million Americans with over 90% of patients being female. Current diagnostic crit Read More

Systemic sclerosis is a systemic connective tissue disorder characterized by the fibrosis of the skin and certain visceral organs, vasculopathy, and immunological abnormalities. Several genetic and inducible animal models of SSc have been developed and are available for research studies. The purpose of this review is to summarize the various animal models of systemic sclerosis and describe the various contributions of these Read More

Inflammation of blood vessels (vasculitis) results from many pathological processes and is found in many different diseases. However, in most situations, the pathological processes inducing vasculitis are unknown. The discovery of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCAs) in the 1980s opened the door for studies that eventually led to the description of a new previously undescribed disease, ANCA-associated vasc Read More

Autoimmune hepatitis is characterized by a progressive destruction of the liver parenchyma and a chronic fibrosis. Although the major targets of this autoimmune-mediated disease have been identified more than two decades ago, the current treatment of autoimmune hepatitis is still based on traditional therapies including a glucocorticoid treatment. One reason for this impasse is the limited availability of reliable animal mo Read More

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic and progressive cholestatic liver disease of unknown etiopathogenesis that mainly affects middle-aged women. Patients show non-suppurative cholangitis with damage and destruction of small- and medium-sized intrahepatic bile ducts. Characteristically, the disease is strongly associated with autoimmune phenomena such as the appearance of serum antimitochondrial Read More

Autoimmune thyroid disease is the most common organ-specific autoimmune disorder which consists of two opposing clinical syndromes, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Graves’ (hyperthyroidism) disease. Graves’ disease is characterized by goiter, hyperthyroidism, and the orbital complication known as Graves’ orbitopathy (GO), or thyroid eye disease. The hyperthyroidism in Graves’ disease is caused by stimulatio Read More

Autoimmune bullous dermatoses (AIBD), such as pemphigus, bullous pemphigoid or epidermolysis bullosa acquisita, are prototypical organ-specific autoimmune diseases. Clinically they are characterized by widespread mucocutaneous blistering, which is often difficult to treat. Patients with AIBD suffer from a significant morbidity and an increased mortality. In AIBD blistering is caused by autoantibodies targeting structural proteins Read More

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neurological disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) leading to progressive accumulation of neurological deficits arising from recurrent episodes of inflammation, demyelination and neuronal degeneration. While the aetiology of the disease is unknown MS is widely considered to be the result of aberrant T cell and antibody responses to CNS antigens giving rise to the common concept th Read More

Uveitis is a sight threatening intraocular inflammation accounting for approximately 10% of blindness worldwide. On the basis of aetiology, disease can be classified as infectious or non-infectious; and by anatomical localization of inflammation as anterior, posterior and panuveitis. Non-infectious uveitis is believed to be autoimmune in nature with Th1 and Th17 cells being identified as the prominent effector cell types. Numerous a Read More

Myasthenia gravis is a muscle weakness disease characterized by autoantibodies that target components of the neuromuscular junction, impairing synaptic transmission. The most common form of myasthenia gravis involves antibodies that bind the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the postsynaptic membrane. Many of the remaining cases are due to antibodies against muscle specific tyrosine kinase (MuSK). Recently, a Read More

Immune thrombocytopenia or ITP is a debilitating and life-threatening disorder affecting more than 4 in every 10, 000 adults annually. Following a basic understanding of the immunopathology underlying ITP, namely that production of anti-platelet antibodies results in accelerated platelet clearance and thrombocytopenia, animal models of ITP were quickly developed. Rodent models that develop ITP spontaneously or by pa Read More

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in industrialized nations worldwide. Of all deaths resulting from cardiovascular diseases, 2% are caused by inflammatory heart disease; specifically, myocarditis. The etiology causing myocarditis still remains unclear. Both infectious and non-infectious factors are capable of triggering myocarditis. Acute myocarditis manifests itself in a variety of ways ranging from subclinical d Read More