Autoimmunity in 2018

In the vast database of peer-reviewed articles, the number of 2018 papers published retrieved using the "autoimmunity" keyword remained unchanged compared with the brilliant results of 2017 while returning above a 5% share within the immunology field, after the brisk decrease of this ratio in 2017. As in the past 12 years, we have now searched PubMed for publications related to autoimmunity in the major immunology and autoimmunity peer-reviewed journals and provide here an arbitrary discussion of the major themes encountered. Once again, we are happy to notice that similarities between autoimmune diseases and the common mechanisms significantly outnumber differences. Some examples include data on Th17 cells, cytokines, or other mediators variably involved in the autoimmunity mechanisms such as BLIMP-1, IL-10, IFN, or NF-kB. The study of the microbiome remains central to autoimmunity development and data are being gathered in a growing number of conditions, similar to epigenetics and long non-coding RNA. In the cases of specific diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, or psoriatic arthritis, multiple encouraging findings underline the importance of a strict relationship between basic and clinical science to define new pathogenetic and therapeutic developments. Cumulatively, the present scenario of autoimmunity appears bright and should be regarded as one of the fastest growing in the scientific field of immunology, despite the enormous attention paid to cancer immune mechanisms. The parallel observation that the rheumatology therapeutic pipeline is second only to oncology increases the hopes that more and more patients will be satisfactorily treated in the near future.