Sliding set-points of immune responses for therapy of autoimmunity

Although recent developments in the treatment of autoimmune disease have dramatically improved patient outcomes, these medications are not curative. Two studies in this issue demonstrate the feasibility of curing spontaneous autoimmunity in animal models via short-term enhancement of naturally arising regulatory T (T reg) cells, a subset of CD4(+) T cells needed for maintaining self-tolerance. Importantly, these therapies seemed to generate a new equilibrium, or “set-point,” at which self-tissue damage no longer occurred long after the drug was eliminated from the body.