Unfortunately, these medications also suppress the ability of the immune system to fight infection and have other potentially serious side effects. In some people, a limited number of immuno-suppressive medications may result in disease remission. Even if their disease goes into remission, patients are rarely able to discontinue medications. The possibility that the disease may restart when medication is discontinued must be balanced with the long-term side effects from the immunosuppressive medication. A current goal in caring for patients with autoimmune diseases is to find treatments that produce remissions with fewer side effects.
Much research is focused on developing therapies that target various steps in the immune response.
New approaches such as therapeutic antibodies against specific T cell molecules may produce fewer long-term side effects than the chemotherapies that now are routinely used. Ultimately, medical science is striving to design therapies that prevent autoimmune diseases. To this end, a significant amount of time and resources are spent studying the immune system and pathways of inflammation.