The Immune Tolerance Network: Tolerance at the crossroads

Immune tolerance therapies are designed to reprogramme immune cells in a hi ghly specific fashion in order to eliminate pathogenic responses but preser ve nor mal immune function. A concept that has tantalized immunologists for decades, tolerogenic therapies would replace current lifelong immunosuppre ssive regimens and their often debilitating side-effects with short-term im munosuppressive regimens and their often debilitating side-effects with sho rt-term, effective cures. Significant advances have been made over the past decade that have provided a more detailed understanding of the molecular e vents associated with T-cell recognition and activation. Unprecedented oppo rtunities to test these approaches in a variety of human diseases have now emerged. As a result of these advances, the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN), a group of 70 expert immunologists spanning multiple disciplines, has been created to identify and promote the use of tolerogenic therapies in the cl inic. Using a unique interactive approach designed to speed the development of clinical tolerance therapies, the ITN is examining new and innovative t herapeutic approaches and bioassays in a range of autoimmune diseases and t ransplantation settings, as well as asthma and allergies. This work has bee n funded by the National Institutes of Health (in collaboration with the Ju venile Diabetes Foundation International).