Autoimmune Disease

Historically, the concept of autoimmunity centers on the inability to adequately identify some of the body’s own proteins. In an autoimmune disease, the immune system inappropriately recognizes those proteins leading to a pathologic humoral and/or cell-mediated immune reaction. Both the “self” protein antigens and their site determine the specific end organ damage. Autoimmune diseases are a diverse group of disorders with relatively poorly understood pathogenesis. Often diagnosed as end-organ specific, autoimmune diseases usually involve multiple sites including the nervous system. In addition, more than one autoimmune disease is frequently diagnosed clinically in the same patient (Brinar et al., 2006).