Speculations on Immunosomatics: Potential Diagnostic and Therapeutic Value of Immune Homeostasis Concepts

If we compare the current common sense in immunology with that often years ago, the most remarkable change is, perhaps, the notion that self-reactivity is a characteristic of normal immune systems and not necessarily a synonym of aggressive autoimmunity. This notion of physiological autoreactivities has made its way with some difficulty, and it continues to be contested by quite a few. This is, however, the normal reaction to a new idea from a scientific community used to seizing on novelties only if they add to the established frameworks and paradigm (see Ref. 1 for another such example). Besides, conservatism may be justified in science, for a body of 'established truths' must exist in any discipline. We shall neither review the evidence for functional autoreactive B and T cells in normal individuals, nor consider putative mechanisms of dominant tolerance that must operate in normal immune systems harbouring pathogenic autoreactive lymphocytes. This has been done before (see Ref. 2). Our intention here is twofold; first, to underline the contradictions that persist today in the field, once the existence of autoreactivities in normal individuals has been accepted; second, to speculate on further developments of what is becoming the new common sense. We will restrict our discussion to B cells and antibodies, for reasons that will become apparent below.