Katherine Trujillo Useche
Latin News Agency for Medicine and Public Health
According to an article in the printed journal of Medicine and Public Health (MSP), Dr. Anardi Agosto, allergist and immunologist, talks about immunological deficiencies that can be reflected in autoimmune conditions.
The immune system works to maintain homeostasis in the body, protects the human being from infections, eliminates deficient cells, even cancer cells. If there is a problem in the system, it causes disease, whether it is immunodeficiency, autoimmune problems or malignant tumors.
The doctor clarifies that primary immunodeficiencies are genetic defects that can affect different areas of the immune system and this makes the patient even more susceptible to infections. The problem was that the immune system is one and this can lead to the predisposition of other autoimmune diseases and malignancies.
The doctor adds, “the immune system learns to tolerate itself by eliminating high-affinity autoreactive lymphocytes over time, bone marrow or periphery, through mechanisms such as anergy or apoptosis, ignoring antigens, using inhibited receptors and inhibiting autoreactive T cells.”
Immune deficiencies cause autoimmunity
Autoimmune diseases are complex conditions, with several mechanisms proposed to explain this, the doctor gives the example of genetic susceptibility (HLA-27) that causes ankylosing spondylitis after infections such as E. Coli, which are environmental stimuli or due to poor regulation of the system . immune to mutations (FQ XP3, CD25, CTLA-4) to say the least.
The patient with primary immunodeficiencies, such as chronic inflammation, with a persistent presentation of antigens to the immune system due to recurrent infections, are key factors for the development of autoimmunity.
This chronic stimulation that is caused by microbial antigens can promote chronic and exaggerated inflammatory responses of other cells of the immune system, which, in trying to help those who are not functioning properly, end up affecting their own cells.
The association of autoimmune diseases in immunocompromised patients has been demonstrated.
Entering the current topic of COVID-19, the doctor adds that more than 25% of patients with COVID have autoimmune complications that are difficult to understand.
“It’s really incredible that a condition like COVID-19, in which immunoglobulins are low and poor in response to antigens, produces antibodies and self-reactive b cells and attacks itself,” says the doctor.
Given that the immune system is one and that the disorder of the immune system is manifested in any of its components and the susceptibility to infections increases, causing inflammation through exaggerated reactions or attacking, it is important to recognize when there is suspicion of the same.
The doctor warns that, as a general rule, when autoimmune disorders develop at an early age or when several organs are affected and cannot be explained by a single rheumatic condition, an immunodeficiency should be considered.