Treating autoimmune disease without harming normal immunity

With potentially major implications for the future treatment of autoimmunity and related conditions, scientists have found a way to remove the subset of antibody-making cells that cause an autoimmune disease, without harming the rest of the immune system. They studied an autoimmune disease called pemphigus vulgaris, a condition in which a patient’s own immune cells attack a protein called desmoglein-3 that normally adheres skin cells.