A study, undertaken by scientists in Russia and published in June 2011 has looked at targeting B Cells as a potential way of controlling autoimmune diseases.

Some of us are already on a medication called Rituximab which targets B cells.  Rituximab is a monoclonal antibody which works on a protein found on the B Cells and which may be implicated in our auto-immune disease, Birdshot.  We know that Rituximab seems to work for some people but not for everybody, and we also know there are some side effects of Rituximab.

The Russian study looked at a way of more effectively targeting the B Cells with less toxic side effects, and the study seems to suggest that they have found a possible way forward.  Wonderful – yet another possibility for us.

The full study can be found at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21677771?dopt=Citation