Novel Approaches to pathogenesis, diagnosis &treatment of autoimmune diseases based on new insights into thymus-dependen

个体依靠自身的免疫系统来抵御敌对生物的入侵。这个系统通常运作良好。入侵因子（“非自我”）被免疫系统巡逻的杀伤T细胞发现并攻击。这些通常有益的细胞被称为T细胞，因为它们是在一个叫做胸腺的器官中形成和受教育的。胸腺在儿童时期启动了我们的免疫系统，但在青春期就处于不活跃状态。有时胸腺的教育系统出了问题，它会释放出错误地攻击“自我”而不是“非自我”的T细胞。这会导致自身免疫性疾病，如1型糖尿病、多发性硬化症和类风湿性关节炎。欧洲-胸腺项目旨在确定为什么以及如何自我攻击的T细胞被错误地从胸腺释放到体内。通常，在这些错误的T细胞有机会逃脱并引起自身免疫性疾病之前，它们会在胸腺内被检测并破坏。最终目的是了解胸腺的识别过程，帮助免疫系统检测并摧毁在体内巡逻的有缺陷的T细胞，从而预防自身免疫性疾病的发生。

An individual relies upon their immune system to protect against invasion by hostile organisms. The system usually works well. Invading agents (the 'non-self') are detected and attacked by the immune system's patrolling killer T cells. These normally beneficial cells are called T cells because they were formed and educated in an organ called the thymus, which kick-starts our immune system in childhood, but falls into inactivity by adolescence. Sometimes the education system in the thymus goes wrong and it releases T cells that mistakenly attack 'self' instead of 'non-self'. This causes autoimmune diseases, such as type1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. The Euro-Thymaide project aims to determine why and how self-attacking T cells are mistakenly released from the thymus into the body. Usually such errant T cells are detected and destroyed within the thymus, before they have the opportunity to escape and cause autoimmune diseases. The ultimate objective is to learn about the thymus recognition process and help the immune system detect and destroy faulty T cells that patrol the body, thereby preventing the onset of autoimmune diseases.