During the last decade, there has been a significant increase in the incidence of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions in developing countries. In parallel, our increasing understanding of immune cells and their interactions is rapidly leading to new drug modalities to address the unmet clinical needs of complex diseases with improved efficacy and safety profiles. Despite the advancement of new technologies enabling more precise and selective interventions, restoring immune-homeostasis by localizing immunomodulation or tissue repair to the site of disease, for durable, tissue-specific treatment of patients suffering these devastating conditions, is still a highly desired and pending outcome.
This Research Topic aims to provide an overview of the progress made in the field of targeted therapies for immunomodulation and repair to treat autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. It is well understood that during autoimmune disease conditions a combination of an exacerbated immune response together with a failure of regulatory and healing mechanisms, induces tissue damage and fibrosis that in a positive feedback loop over time progress with severe clinical complications. This may explain in part the lack of success of immunomodulatory agents in Type 1 Diabetes and the high rate of non-responders in other autoimmune conditions such as IBD and Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). In this regard, a better understanding of tissue-resident immune and stromal cell interactions, signaling pathways involved in maintaining immune homeostasis, and molecular mechanisms that are dysregulated during different stages of a disease condition are crucial to designing novel strategies for therapeutic interventions. We are particularly interested in new modalities for disease-specific drug delivery, targeting relevant pathways to treat autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. This includes, but is not limited to, small molecules, degradomers, biologics, iADC, and nanomedicine. Proof of concept in preclinical models as well as identification of clinical signatures or biomarkers for selected pathways will further support clinical applications.
We seek Original Research, Review, Perspective and Clinical Trial articles that cover, but are not limited to, the following aspects of tissue localized therapeutics:
• Novel therapeutics modalities for tissue localized immunomodulation and repair
• State of the art technology enabling clinical development
• Novel biomarker strategy implemented to support technology advancement and follow response to treatment
• Induction of antigen-specific tolerance
• Selective induction of cellular exhaustion
• Safe induction of repair or renewal pathways to reverse damaged tissue
• Strategies to camouflage target tissues from immune attack
• Expansion of immune-suppressing cell populations
• Potential applicability to organ targeted autoimmune or inflammatory diseases such as T1D, RA, MS, Alopecia Areata, Vitiligo, etc.
Topic Editor Dr. Mascanfroni is an employee and a shareholder of Pandion Therapeutics, involved in the development of modular therapeutics to restore immune homeostasis in patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Topic Editor Dr. Francisco Quintana is co-founder of AntolRx, which develops therapies for autoimmune diseases. The other Topic Editors have no potential competing interests with regards to the topic theme.
During the last decade, there has been a significant increase in the incidence of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions in developing countries. In parallel, our increasing understanding of immune cells and their interactions is rapidly leading to new drug modalities to address the unmet clinical needs of complex diseases with improved efficacy and safety profiles. Despite the advancement of new technologies enabling more precise and selective interventions, restoring immune-homeostasis by localizing immunomodulation or tissue repair to the site of disease, for durable, tissue-specific treatment of patients suffering these devastating conditions, is still a highly desired and pending outcome.
This Research Topic aims to provide an overview of the progress made in the field of targeted therapies for immunomodulation and repair to treat autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. It is well understood that during autoimmune disease conditions a combination of an exacerbated immune response together with a failure of regulatory and healing mechanisms, induces tissue damage and fibrosis that in a positive feedback loop over time progress with severe clinical complications. This may explain in part the lack of success of immunomodulatory agents in Type 1 Diabetes and the high rate of non-responders in other autoimmune conditions such as IBD and Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). In this regard, a better understanding of tissue-resident immune and stromal cell interactions, signaling pathways involved in maintaining immune homeostasis, and molecular mechanisms that are dysregulated during different stages of a disease condition are crucial to designing novel strategies for therapeutic interventions. We are particularly interested in new modalities for disease-specific drug delivery, targeting relevant pathways to treat autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. This includes, but is not limited to, small molecules, degradomers, biologics, iADC, and nanomedicine. Proof of concept in preclinical models as well as identification of clinical signatures or biomarkers for selected pathways will further support clinical applications.
We seek Original Research, Review, Perspective and Clinical Trial articles that cover, but are not limited to, the following aspects of tissue localized therapeutics:
• Novel therapeutics modalities for tissue localized immunomodulation and repair
• State of the art technology enabling clinical development
• Novel biomarker strategy implemented to support technology advancement and follow response to treatment
• Induction of antigen-specific tolerance
• Selective induction of cellular exhaustion
• Safe induction of repair or renewal pathways to reverse damaged tissue
• Strategies to camouflage target tissues from immune attack
• Expansion of immune-suppressing cell populations
• Potential applicability to organ targeted autoimmune or inflammatory diseases such as T1D, RA, MS, Alopecia Areata, Vitiligo, etc.
Topic Editor Dr. Mascanfroni is an employee and a shareholder of Pandion Therapeutics, involved in the development of modular therapeutics to restore immune homeostasis in patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Topic Editor Dr. Francisco Quintana is co-founder of AntolRx, which develops therapies for autoimmune diseases. The other Topic Editors have no potential competing interests with regards to the topic theme.