A new treatment using a combination of drugs targeting different parts of the immune system improves the recovery rate for patients with severe lupus involving the kidneys, according to a report in the October Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

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International study finds potential biomarkers for psychosis and cerebrovascular disease in patients diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), commonly known as lupus, can affect nearly any part of the body, including the joints, skin, kidneys, heart, nervous system, and brain. Along with joint pain, muscle pain, unexplained fever, extreme fatigue, and skin rashes, neurologic and psychiatric events often accompany this autoimmune disease. Depending on the study, between 37 and 95 percent of SLE patients experience signs and symptoms of neuropsychiatric (NP) disease. Determining the correct attribution to NP events is a challenge when managing nervous system disease in individual SLE patients, as well as a critical factor in selecting the right treatment and evaluating progress. For guidance in these decisions, doctors need reliable biomarkers — which, as dedicated researchers know, have proven difficult to find.

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Findings pinpoint numerous proteins as potential autoimmune disease targets
The new study was published in the January 18 edition (Volume 28, Issue 1) of the journal Immunity.

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Investigators at Hospital for Special Surgery have identified two new targets for drugs aimed at controlling lupus. If companies are able to develop drugs that hone in on these targets, patients may be able to control their disease with few side effects.

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New research provides clues about the causes of lupus symptoms and suggests specific new targeted treatment strategies, according to Nilamadham Mishra, M.D., from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, in presentations this week at the American College of Rheumatology in Boston.

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ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have shown that an immunosuppressive drug used in organ transplant cases is effective in reducing flare-ups in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). SLE results in inflammation of connective tissues and can involve the skin, joints and kidneys. Its cause is unknown. The findings were announced today at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in Boston.

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A compound related to a drug used in humans to prevent organ-transplant rejection attacks a key biochemical process in the faulty immune cells of lupus-prone mice, suggesting a possible new approach to combating the disease, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

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So many people have had comments like, “I had no idea Susan was so sick.” That was because Susan did not want anybody to know.

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Lupus is an autoimmune disease which produces antibodies causing injuries to the body’s cells and tissue. It makes the immune system go out of control and the organism attack healthy cells instead of the germs on them. This pathology, which affects more than 5 million people around the world, is more developed in women of fertile age between 15 and 44 years old.

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Lupus nephritis is kidney disease that is caused by lupus. To start, it must be understood that there are many forms of kidney disease that are referred to as lupus nephritis. Each form is distinguished by characteristic patterns of abnormalities as defined by a kidney biopsy. (A biopsy is the removal of a sample of tissue for microscopic examination.) Typically, the findings on a kidney biopsy of a lupus patient are classified according to the appearance of the tissue and immune abnormalities seen under the microscope.

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