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Health

Inside the new therapies promising to finally beat autoimmune disease

Type 1 diabetes, IBD, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, coeliac disease and lupus are all caused by the body attacking itself. But new therapies that reset the immune system could offer lasting help

By Jasmin Fox-Skelly

24 February 2025

×îÐÂÂé¶¹ÊÓÆµ. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Andrew Hudson

Pere Santamaria was 15 when he developed myasthenia gravis. This autoimmune condition causes extreme muscle weakness and can sometimes lead to breathing difficulties. In Santamaria’s case, it affected the ocular muscles controlling his vision, making him see double.

“It had a tremendous effect on me personally,” he says. “I was becoming an adolescent, and all of a sudden I couldn’t play sports and I couldn’t live a normal life. I had to take very high doses of corticosteroids, which made me swell up like a balloon.”

Worse,…

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