New hope for people with autoimmune diseases

January 1, 2008

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06:16 PM PST on Monday, December 31, 2007

JEAN ENERSEN / KING 5 News

After 26 years with diabetes, Suzy Won son knows the drill. She's

no longer the child who once dreamed of a cure.

" We'll find a cure. About five years. Give us five years. So every

five years another five years would go by and I'd say, 'Wow. There's

not a cure yet,' " she said.

Not yet, but Suzy finds renewed hope at the University of California,

Irvine.

In tests on human blood cells, researchers blocked cells responsible

for juvenile diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis,

actually stopping the diseases in rats. Their weapons: sea anemone

venom and the rue plant.

" At this stage we don't know if it'll be a long term treatment or if

treatment for a period of time will completely suppress the disease

and prevent it from coming back, " said Beeton, PhD,

Physiology researcher at the University of California, Irvine.

In autoimmune diseases, the immune system attacks the body's own

tissue. But using compounds from the rue plant and the sea anemone,

researchers were able to prevent that without blocking cells needed to

fight infection.

" It gives us more clues. It's sort of like putting a jigsaw puzzle

together where the more pieces you can fill in, the easier it is to

fill in the rest of the puzzle, " said Dr. Beeton.

It's a puzzle that could lead to clinical trials, perhaps a new

treatment. Suzy's heard that promise before, but this time she's old

enough to help make it happen, and hopefully in her lifetime, it'll

become medicine's next big thing.

Researchers hope to begin testing in humans in the next few years.

There are more than 80 known types of autoimmune diseases.

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