"When a T lymphocyte is activated by its antigen, it matures into either a tolerant T cell ""Treg"" or an effector cell, eg the inflammatory ""Th17"" cell. This is a critical fate-decision fork permitting self-tolerance to co-exist with immune attack against pathogens. If it goes wrong, auto-immune disease could result should naturally self-tolerant T cells become improperly switched towards self-attack - as occurs in MS where rogue TH17 cells start to attack myelin. A simple binary switch between LIF (for tolerance) and IL-6 (for inflammation) plays a critical role in regulating this fate decision fork - each exerting mutually opposing effects on the other. In auto-immune disease, LIFNano guides the switch for tolerance so protecting against autoimmunity."