Atherosclerosis is an autoimmune disease!

In autoimmune diseases, the immune system turns against its own body through pathogenic B cells with high affinity or T cells, leading to severe organ damage: Multiple Sclerosis (nervous system paralyses), Diabetes Type 1 (strong risk factor for atherosclerosis requiring lifelong treatment) and Rheumatoid Arthritis (debilitating excruciating deformities of joints) are examples of such clinically important autoimmune diseases.

Despite international research efforts for decades, for atherosclerosis no such defining criteria have been documented. Research by an international consortium published in Nature Cardiovascular Research report that atherosclerosis satisfies crucial defining criteria of an autoimmune disease.

The current research identifies high affinity autoreactive antibodies, which - subsequent to adoptive transfer into mice - accelerates atherosclerosis. One of the autoantibodies is directed against histone 2B.

Following vaccination of the mice with histone 2B, atherosclerosis severity was accelerated. The experimental data in mice could be substantiated in a clinical trial of 495 patients.

In a human cohort, circulating anti-H2B antibody titers positively correlate with aortic calcification in humans.

The senior author comments: ” Our data are likely to have transformative power, because they characterize atherosclerosis as an autoimmune disease. They have fundamental and far-reaching implications for future research as they allow to develop new types of diagnostics and immunotherapeutics, before the development of myocardial infarcts and strokes” and then adding a cautionary note: “However, this study is only providing a glimpse into a long and challenging journey”.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44161-026-00864-w

https://sciencemission.com/autoantibody%E2%88%92autoantigen-pair-in-atherosclerosis