Autoimmune Disease Prevention Center (ADPC)

Overview of the Autoimmune Disease Prevention Center

The Autoimmune Disease Prevention Center (ADPC) was developed in 2024 under director Kevin Deane, MD/PhD with the mission to advance prevention in autoimmune diseases.

The ADPC aims to provide central organization for support and from across a wide variety of disciplines are able to participate autoimmune disease prevention efforts, including implementation of observational trials, clinical trials, translational and basic research in order to advance the prevention of autoimmune diseases.  

What are autoimmune diseases?

The immune system normally helps you fight off infections, heal wounds and even get rid of cancers. However, in some cases the immune system attacks the body. When this happens, someone is considered to have an ‘autoimmune disease’.

There are over 50 different types of autoimmune diseases that include conditions such as multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease (e.g. Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis), lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis to name a few.

The ADPC’s initial focus on rheumatoid arthritis

Ultimately, the vision of the ADPC is to make prevention of autoimmune diseases a routine part of health care. However, the ADPC’s initial activities, as well as the composition of its Core Operations Team and Advisory Board, will focus on the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This is because RA is a condition that has many features that support prevention:

• RA affects approximately 1% of the population making it one of the most common chronic autoimmune diseases; further, RA leads to substantial decreased quality of life for those who have developed disease, as well as high personal and societal financial costs. Therefore, preventing RA would lead to major improvements in personal well-being and public health.

• There have already been considerable scientific advances in RA that support prevention. These include an ability to predict with some accuracy who may develop RA in the future, as well as an understanding of some of the biologic processes that drive disease development. There have also been several clinical prevention trials for RA that have been completed. Thus far, these trials have not identified a highly effective preventive intervention; however, the fact that these trials have been completed supports that additional trials will be feasible in the near future.

• The ADPC’s inaugural Director Kevin Deane and other Core Operational Team members (e.g. Drs Striebich, Demoruelle and Marie Feser) have extensive experience in studying the natural history of RA - and have led one of the first prevention trials for RA in the USA. The ADPC will be able to leverage these experiences to rapidly advance efforts in prevention for RA that furthermore will ultimately be applicable for a wide range of autoimmune diseases.