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Autoimmunity is a type of hypersensitivity to self-antigens that affects approximately five percent of the population. Most types of autoimmunity involve the humoral immune response. An antibody that inappropriately marks self-components as foreign is termed an autoantibody. In patients with myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease, muscle-cell receptors that induce contraction in response to acetylcholine are targeted by antibodies. The result is muscle weakness that may include marked difficultly with fine or gross motor functions. In systemic lupus erythematosus, a diffuse autoantibody response to the individual’s own DNA and proteins results in various systemic diseases (Figure 17.23). Systemic lupus erythematosus may affect the heart, joints, lungs, skin, kidneys, central nervous system, or other tissues, causing tissue damage through antibody binding, complement recruitment, lysis, and inflammation.
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Autoimmunity can develop with time and its causes may be rooted in molecular mimicry, a situation in which one molecule is similar enough in shape to another molecule that it binds the same immune receptors. Antibodies and T-cell receptors may bind self-antigens that are structurally similar to pathogen antigens. As an example, infection with Streptococcus pyogenes(the bacterium that causes strep throat) may generate antibodies or T cells that react with heart muscle, which has a similar structure to the surface of S.pyogenes. These antibodies can damage heart muscle with autoimmune attacks, leading to rheumatic fever. Insulin-dependent (Type 1) diabetes mellitus arises from a destructive inflammatory TH1 response against insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. Patients with this autoimmunity must be treated with regular insulin injections.
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