Causes of Autoimmunity
Autoimmune disorders occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissues and organs in your body as if they are foreign invaders
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Overview
Scientists have spent decades exploring how the immune system normally functions. This allows them to understand what changes occur in autoimmunity. Researchers are still trying to understand what causes autoimmune disorders. What researchers do know is there are risk factors that are believed to impact your immune system and how the body accidentally creates antibodies for yourself.
Key Points
- Autoimmune disorders occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissues and organs in your body as if they are foreign invaders.
- Researchers are still working to understand the causes of autoimmune disorders. Causes also differ between specific autoimmune disorders.
- Certain risk factors are believed increase your risk of developing autoimmune disorders.
Reacting to Self
While the immune system is great at defending us from pathogens, it can sometimes get mixed up and attack our own cells by mistake. The immune cells that accidentally attack our own cells are called “‘self-reactive” cells because they react against your own body.
As the immune system makes new T and B cells, it tries to ensure that any cells that strongly react against your own cells and tissues get deleted before they can cause harm. While the immune system eliminates many self-reactive cells, it isn’t perfect, and some of these self-reactive cells slip through. Once released in the body, these self-reactive immune cells attack your own tissues, resulting in autoimmune disorders.
Risk Factors
Research has shown that some risk factors may increase your risk of developing an autoimmune disorder. Having one or more of these risk factors does not mean you will develop an autoimmune disorder.
Biological Sex: The majority of people affected by autoimmune disorders are female.
Genetics: Some disorders, such as lupus and multiple sclerosis, are known to be caused partly by a person’s genetics. Autoimmune disorders can run in families, meaning if someone in your family has an autoimmune disorder, that may increase your risk.
Having an Autoimmune Disorder: If you already have one autoimmune disorder, you are at risk of developing more.
Exposure to Toxins: Exposure to chemicals or other factors in the environment, such as where you live or work, may trigger autoimmune disorders. Recent research has shown that the toxins created by smoking tobacco can also increase your risk of developing an autoimmune disorder.
Infections: Exposure to certain infections like Epstein Barr Virus, COVID-19, and Group A Streptococcus can affect your genetics and immune system. These infections can turn on certain genes that impact the immune system’s ability to differentiate between yourself and foreign invaders, triggering an autoimmune reaction.
While immunologists are still piecing together the puzzle of autoimmune diseases, scientists are working to deepen their understanding of the immune system. By examining how it operates when it’s functioning properly—and when it’s not—they’re steadily uncovering new insights to uncover the causes of autoimmune disorders.
Sources
- Jain, A., Marshall, J., Buikema, A., Bancroft, T., Kelly, J. P., & Newschaffer, C. J. (2015). Autism Occurrence by MMR Vaccine Status Among US Children With Older Siblings With and Without Autism. JAMA, 313(15), 1534. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2015.3077
- Taylor, B., Miller, E., Farrington, Cp., Petropoulos, M.-C., Favot-Mayaud, I., Li, J., & Waight, P. A. (1999). Autism and measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine: no epidemiological evidence for a causal association. The Lancet, 353(9169), 2026–2029. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(99)01239-8
- Madsen, K. M., Hviid, A., Vestergaard, M., Schendel, D., Wohlfahrt, J., Thorsen, P., Olsen, J., & Melbye, M. (2002). A Population-Based Study of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccination and Autism. New England Journal of Medicine, 347(19), 1477–1482. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa021134
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