Author Archives: Malika Ammam, PhD

Study Reports Rare Case of Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension with Onset of Lupus in Teenage Girl

Japanese researchers reported a rare case of idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) accompanying the onset of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in a patient. The study, “Bilateral Abducens Nerve Palsy due to Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension as an Initial Manifestation of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus,” was published in Internal Medicine. IIH is a syndrome…

Cells Thought to Cause Lupus May Not Affect Its Later Progression

New research found that a specific set of immune cells named plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), long believed to cause lupus disease, actually did not contribute to late-stage lupus in a mice model. The paper, which has potential implications for future disease treatment, was published in The Journal of Immunology and is titled…

Lupus Initiative Using CDC Grant to Educate Patients, Care Providers

The Lupus Initiative (TLI) of The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) was awarded a five-year grant by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The money will go to supporting development of a national, grassroots program aiming to target individuals with undiagnosed lupus, care providers, and rheumatology healthcare providers. From a diagnostic…

A Call for Better Biomarkers for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

The promise that the field of biomarkers hold for earlier diagnosis and hence superior treatment of systemic autoimmune diseases were the focus of a recent review in Drug Discovery & Development. Systemic autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Sjögren’s syndrome (SjS), polymyositis/dermatomyositis, and systemic sclerosis (SSc) are disorders…

The Role of a Receptor-Ligand Pathway in Autoimmune Diseases, Lupus

In a recent review paper published in Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism entitled “The CD27–CD70 pathway and pathogenesis of autoimmune disease“, researchers examined the role of the CD27 receptor and its ligand protein CD70 in functional changes of autoimmune diseases with particular focus on systemic lupus…