New Autoimmune Disease Treatments Could Cause Fewer Side Effects

Because many of the current treatments for autoimmune diseases leave patients at greater risk of developing other opportunistic illnesses, a research team at the University of Oxford in England has been using genetics to possibly minimize the side effects of treatment. Specifically, the team investigated how genetic variation affects the function of a protein produced by the TYK2 gene, which plays an important role in the processes that help the body fight off infection and cancer, but also promotes autoimmune diseases. They found that a single genetic variant in TYK2 has a strong protective effect that reduces its function and diminishes the activity of the immune cells that could promote disease development. These findings suggest that pharmaceutically mimicking the impact of the protective TYK2 variant could pave the way for new autoimmune disease treatments that balance the need for efficacy and safety.

“While our research indicates that TYK2 could be a good drug target for treating autoimmune diseases, drugs that block the activity of immune cells have been known to leave patients vulnerable to infections and to increase the risk of cancer,” said Professor Lars Fugger of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford. “However, by interrogating data available through the UK Biobank, the most comprehensive health study in the United Kingdom, we found that people carrying the protective TYK2 genetic variant were no more likely to have serious infections or to develop cancer than people without the variant.”