Re-establishing immunological self-tolerance in autoimmune disease

Recent progress has revealed the molecular basis of how self-reactive T cells are normally generated in the immune system and differentiate into autoimmune effector T cells and how they are controlled by central and peripheral mechanisms of self-tolerance. There is also evidence that target tissues and cells in autoimmune disease have different sensitivities to immune mediators. Here we describe how these basic findings can be clinically translated to re-establish self-tolerance in individuals with autoimmune disease.