Many reasons for the dysfunction of the immune system have been postulated by medical researchers, but the standard approach to the treatment of such patients has been to suppress the immune response with immunosuppressive drugs, notwithstanding their many damaging side effects. Other treatments offered are merely palliative and designed to relieve pain and symptoms linked to the inflammatory process. International medical and scientific interest in this breakthrough has been overwhelming and a number of clinical trials using sterols and sterolins for various conditions are far progressed and more are planned in the near future. With the millions of people suffering from RA and other auto-immune diseases in mind, any new information coming to light will be published at the earliest opportunity. The following is a summary of how the immune system functions under a normal response and how during a pathological process, the same system can cause the tissue damage seen in various diseases.
T cells are the cells which control and regulate the immune response.
In fact, it is known that should the activity of THI CD4 cells be defective, many chronic diseases typified by an over-activity of antibody production ensue. This is due to the fact that, once inside the host cell, the pathogens are inaccessible to the action of antibodies. Hence, the cellular mechanism typified by the CD8 T cells evolved as a result of this escape mechanism employed by the pathogens in question. The immune system is finely tuned to adapt to changes which can be induced either when a virus or bacterium invades the host or to recognize changes that are associated with the development of malignant characteristics. It therefore stands to reason that when the TH1 arm of the T cells is deficient, the consequence is one of infection, chronic inflammation and eventually tissue damage and disease.