Successfully Treating Genetically Determined Autoimmune Enteritis

Using targeted immunotherapy, doctors have succeeded in curing a type of autoimmune enteritis caused by a recently discovered genetic mutation. This report comes from researchers at the Department of Biomedicine of the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel. Their results raise new possibilities for the management of diarrhea, which is often a side effect of melanoma treatment. Immunodeficiencies can arise due to gene mutations in immune system proteins. As such mutations rarely occur, these immunodeficiencies often go unrecognized or are detected too late for effective treatment. Currently, there are more than 300 different known genetically determined immunodeficiencies, with new examples being described almost every week. Prof. Mike Recher's research group at the Department of Biomedicine of the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel recently discovered a genetic immunodeficiency associated with serious, chronic autoimmune enteritis in an adult patient.