METACIR: METAbolic Control of the Immune Response
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating the metabolic control of immune responses in health and in autoimmune diseases; identification of new immune regulatory pathways with therapeutic potential.
IRAS ID
155723
Contact name
Andrew P Cope
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 11 months, 28 days
Research summary
Upon infection, the human body reacts by activating the immune system. Cells of the immune system will activate and mount a response against the pathogen until it has been cleared from the body. Once this has been achieved, the response will shut down and return to a basal situation, ready for the next challenge. However, in some individuals, the immune response is not shut down appropriately and this might lead to a situation where the cells are activated in a chronic manner and may attack their own tissues (this is called an autoimmune reaction). The destruction of the body tissues may lead to the development of an autoimmune disease such as Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). Despite advances in the knowledge on how the immune response is activated and regulated, the exact mechanism by which this is happening is not fully understood, neither are the differences between healthy and diseased individuals. Our group has described several novel abnormalities in the activation and regulation of the immune cells in autoimmune disease. This study is aimed at dissecting the mechanisms that drive those abnormalities. We will obtain samples from blood and sometimes from inflamed sites such as the synovial fluid from patients with chronic inflammatory diseases such as RA. We will isolate the immune cells and perform extensive laboratory analyses to compare the behavior of cells from healthy and diseased individuals. The results that we will obtain will improve the current understanding of alterations in immune responses in disease and could lead to a better therapy.
REC name
London - Bloomsbury Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/0399
Date of REC Opinion
18 Apr 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion