Experts believe that the high volume of processed foods in Western diets may be causing an increase in autoimmune diseases worldwide.
Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute in London say that more people are suffering because their immune systems cannot differentiate between healthy cells and foreign microorganisms that have invaded the body.
James Lee and Carola Vinuesa, both group leaders at the biomedical research institute, lead two separate research groups that aim to help identify the exact causes of autoimmune diseases.
Autoimmune diseases occur when the body’s natural defense system becomes confused and mistakenly attacks normal cells. There are more than 80 types of autoimmune diseases, ranging from rheumatoid arthritis to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), type one diabetes, and multiple sclerosis.
These lifelong conditions are incurable and often develop in young people. They affect approximately four million people in the UK.
Previous studies have suggested that the prevalence of autoimmune diseases has been increasing over the past 40 years, with a 2018 report showing some diseases increased by nine percent each year.
Leeward He said The observer that some cases are beginning to emerge in countries that have never had such a disease before, pointing towards a recent increase in IBD in the Middle East and East Asia.
He added: “Human genetics have not changed in recent decades. So something must be changing in the outside world in a way that is increasing our predisposition to autoimmune diseases. “
Vinuesa, who backed Lee’s hypothesis, noted that Western diets are becoming more widespread around the world and more people are buying fast food.
He said that the lower nutritional value of fast food could affect a person’s microbiome, which refers to the microorganisms that exist in the gut and play an important role in ensuring that bodily functions work as they should.
But diets rich in fast food could be causing changes in the microbiome, which could be responsible for “triggering autoimmune diseases,” Vinuesa said, adding that “there is not much we can do to stop the global spread of fast food.” . franchises ”.
But some people have “certain genetic susceptibilities” that could make them more vulnerable to autoimmune diseases. Scientists set out to try to understand the “fundamental genetic mechanisms underpinning” these conditions in order to tackle the problem.
They are doing this by using new techniques to identify small DNA differences between large groups of people, which in turn will help identify common genetic patterns among those with autoimmune diseases.
The researchers hope this will help develop targeted treatments, particularly for diseases that have different versions caused by different genetic pathways.
