Autoimmune disease

An autoimmune disease is a condition in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's own cells and tissues as if they were foreign.

Dozens of conditions fall into this category, including rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, lupus, celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease and autoimmune thyroid disease. Some target a single organ, while others are systemic. The immune system produces autoantibodies or self-reactive T cells that drive chronic inflammation, and symptoms depend on the tissue involved but commonly include fatigue, joint pain, rashes and fever. Genetics, sex, infections, smoking and environmental exposures all influence risk, and women are affected far more often than men.

Diagnosis combines symptoms, blood tests for autoantibodies and inflammatory markers, imaging and sometimes biopsy, and management typically uses immunosuppressive or immunomodulating drugs along with care for specific symptoms. Cannabinoid receptor type 2 is expressed on immune cells, and cannabinoids have been studied in animal models of several autoimmune diseases and in some human trials for multiple sclerosis symptoms, but the evidence is limited and no cannabinoid has an approved use for an autoimmune disease itself.