The increasing prevalence of autoimmunity and autoimmune diseases: an urgent call to action for improved understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention

• Published in: Current opinion in immunology 2023-02, Vol.80, p.102266-102266, Article 102266
• Main Author: Miller, Frederick W
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air Pollution; Autoimmune Diseases - diagnosis; Autoimmune Diseases - epidemiology; Autoimmune Diseases - therapy; Autoimmunity; Humans; Prevalence
• ISSN: 0952-7915; 1879-0372
• DOI: 10.1016/j.coi.2022.102266

Autoimmunity is characterized by self-reactive immune components and autoimmune disease by autoimmunity plus pathology. Both autoimmunity and autoimmune diseases are dramatically increasing in many parts of the world, likely as a result of changes in our exposures to environmental factors. Current evidence implicates the momentous alterations in our foods, xenobiotics, air pollution, infections, personal lifestyles, stress, and climate change as causes for these increases. Autoimmune diseases have a major impact on the individuals and families they affect, as well as on our society and healthcare costs, and current projections suggest they may soon take their place among the predominant medical disorders. This necessitates that we increase the scope and scale of our efforts, and coordinate our resources and studies, to understand autoimmune disease risk factors and pathogeneses and improve our diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive approaches, as the costs of inaction will be profound and far greater without such investments. •Autoimmunity is defined by a self-reactive adaptive immune system, causing clinical pathology in autoimmune diseases.•Evidence suggests that autoimmunity and autoimmune diseases are on the rise.•Probable causes are changes in food, contacts with xenobiotics, air pollution, infections, stress, and climate change.•Autoimmune disease increases result in more individual and societal suffering and private and public health care costs.•Increased efforts to improve our understanding, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of autoimmune diseases are needed.