Are there any treatments available to "reset" the immune system?

Hi @75artarloabc‍, thank you for your question.

In autoimmune diseases, the immune system, whose role is to fight infections and the development of cancers, goes haywire and reacts against the body itself. More precisely, it recognizes something in the body as foreign and dangerous and therefore attacks the tissues and organs carrying that something. For example, in type 1 diabetes, an element of the pancreas is wrongly recognized by the immune system, which leads to the partial destruction of the pancreas, and thus to the cessation of the production of insulin (a hormone produced by the pancreas); the absence of insulin causes diabetes.

The idea of "reset" therapies for the immune system is to make it understand that a certain element of the body against which it unfortunately reacts, is not foreign or dangerous, in other words, that it is not necessary to trigger an immune response against this element. These are extremely sophisticated drugs that are still in clinical trials, where they are showing very promising effects. We can expect to see them on the market in the next few years.

Such therapies can only be developed for autoimmune diseases where we have perfectly identified the element that the immune system recognizes incorrectly. These therapies would not repair the damage already done, but would prevent further damage from being done. While today, treatments against autoimmune diseases try to stop or slow down their evolution, "reset" treatments would allow to cure these diseases.

Have a nice day!