Disease-modifying drugs have transformed the treatment options for many systemic autoimmune diseases. However, an evolving understanding of disease mechanisms, which might vary between individuals, is paving the way for the development of novel agents that operate in a patient-tailored manner through immunophenotypic regulation of disease-relevant cells and the microenvironment of affected tissue domains. Immunoengineering is a field that is focused on the application of engineering principles to the modulation of the immune system, and it could enable future personalized and immunoregulatory therapies for rheumatic diseases. An important aspect of immunoengineering is the harnessing of material chemistries to design technologies that span immunologically relevant length scales, to enhance or suppress immune responses by re-balancing effector and regulatory mechanisms in innate or adaptive immunity and rescue abnormalities underlying pathogenic inflammation. These materials are endowed with physicochemical properties that enable features such as localization in immune cells and organs, sustained delivery of immunoregulatory agents, and mimicry of key functions of lymphoid tissue. Immunoengineering applications already exist for disease management, and there is potential for this new discipline to improve disease modification in rheumatology.

疾病缓解药物改变了许多系统性自身免疫性疾病的治疗选择。然而，对疾病机制的不断发展的理解（可能因个体而异）为开发新药物铺平了道路，这些新药物通过疾病相关细胞的免疫表型调节和受影响组织域的微环境以针对患者的方式发挥作用。免疫工程是一个专注于将工程原理应用于免疫系统调节的领域，它可以实现未来风湿性疾病的个性化和免疫调节治疗。免疫工程的一个重要方面是利用材料化学来设计跨越免疫学相关长度尺度的技术，通过重新平衡先天或适应性免疫中的效应器和调节机制来增强或抑制免疫反应，并挽救致病性炎症的异常。这些材料具有物理化学特性，可实现免疫细胞和器官中的定位、免疫调节剂的持续递送以及淋巴组织关键功能的模仿等功能。免疫工程在疾病管理中的应用已经存在，这一新学科有可能改善风湿病的疾病治疗。