Speculations on potential anti-receptor autoimmune diseases

Many autoimmune disorders have a strong tendency to cluster in a single patient or type of patient. Therefore, in those cases in which anti-receptor antibodies are known to be responsible for one of the diseases in the cluster, it is logical to proceed investigatively on the presumption that the aetiology of other members of the cluster may also have an anti-receptor autoantibody basis. This logic is examined by considering examples of clustering in human diseases involving both organ-specific and non-organ-specific autoimmunities. The strong relationship between clustering among autoimmune diseases and the HLA-B8/DRw3 haplotype may provide a marker for anti-receptor autoimmune diseases.