The thymus gland, a ductless, gland like body, of undetermined function, situated in the upper thorax near the throat is a sort of hub which appears to be connected to many systems in the body. T-cells, required for autoimmunity, are manufactured in the thymus. When the t-cells are unable to recognize even one of the many proteins in the body as self, autoimmune disease can be triggered.

New research carried out by the University in San Francisco suggests that earlier detection of autoimmune disorders, may be possible if focus is centered on the thymus. The study focused on autoimmune eye diseases. IRBP is a protein that transports vitamin A within the retina. Essential for vision, it was found to be present in the in area, but the thymus did not recognize the self protein. Instead the thymus attacks it in the case of autoimmune eye disease. Studying the eye is a precursor for for possibly finding the triggers of other auto-immune disorders.

"The thymus is like a filter," said Mark Anderson, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at the UCSF Diabetes Center, and senior author of a scientific paper describing the discovery. "It is removing or pulling out auto reactive T cells. What this new study shows is if just one self-antigen is missing as the T cells go through the filter, it looks like this alone can lead to an autoimmune disease. The finding supports the promise of treatments targeting individual body proteins or antigens since we have shown that a single self-antigen can trigger disease," he added.

Many severe illnesses are thought to be related to the thousands of proteins in the body. Elimination, or lack there of, may point to the inability of the Thymus to correctly filter and purge the proteins, which can prevent autoimmune attacks in the body later on. Many autoimmune diseases are not diagnosed, until a great deal of damage has already occurred.

A collaboration in preclinical studies with Jeffrey Bluestone, PhD, director of the UCSF Diabetes Center, is underway to see if T cell autoimmune attacks on IRBP can be modulated to prevent the autoimmune eye disease.