From pathogenesis to therapy of autoimmune diseases

Especially, the application of novel and designer biological therapies (chapter 8) requires a better understanding of the processes that are involved in the genesis of immunological diseases. In chapter 2, some aspects of the role of epigenetic mechanisms and innate immunity in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases are described. Regardless of the underlying pathology, disease-associated autoantibodies are important biomarkers for the vast majority of non-organ and organ specific autoimmune diseases. However, to improve our understanding of these diseases and serological diagnostics it is necessary to search for novel autoantibodies, to further evaluate the real clinical relevance of known autoantibodies and to further develop and standardize the detection methods (chapters 3-5)