The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved, under priority review, the use of Benlysta (belimumab) for the treatment of children age 5 and older with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Benlysta is a monoclonal human antibody designed to bind and block the activity of the B-lymphocyte…
The Lupus Research Alliance (LRA) has funded a series of research projects, ongoing worldwide, aimed at seeking new therapies for people with lupus. The award recipients presented their findings at the recent 13th International Congress on Systematic Lupus Erythematosus (LUPUS 2019), in San Francisco, California. One of the…
A group of scientists from the University of Pennsylvania may have found part of the reason lupus is more prevalent in women than in men: a defect that prevents the full inactivation of women’s second X chromosome in immune T cells. The findings of the study, “…
A frailty index developed by the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) could be a powerful and meaningful health measure to estimate vulnerability and mortality risk among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a study has found. The study, “Evaluating the properties of a frailty index and its association with…
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients have a higher risk for certain cancers — including cervical, thyroid, ovarian, and oral cancer, as well as lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and leukemia — than the general population, emphasizing the importance of cancer screening programs as part of SLE management. The findings of the…
Defects in the Ets1 gene in T-cells, immune system cells with known links to inflammation, caused the uncontrolled expansion of some of these cells in mice and induced systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) autoimmunity in the animals, researchers report. Blocking a cytokine known as interleukin (IL)-4 suppressed this cellular expansion and eased…
Researchers from the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have developed a bioelectronic device that is effective at reducing pain and fatigue in people with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The device is external and, unlike other bioelectronic devices, does not require surgical implantation. It works by sending electrical signals through…
Immugenyx, a subsidiary of Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals, has partnered with Janssen Research & Development, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, to develop a new humanized mouse model for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The collaboration was announced by Hemogenyx, a biopharmaceutical company devoted…
DN2 B-cells — a subset of immune B-cells that are rare in healthy individuals, but extremely common in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) — play a critical role in the production of harmful autoantibodies and lupus activity, a study reports. Conducted by a team of researchers at the Emory…
Black Africans often have distinct variants of systemic lupus erythematosus compared to white patients, but conventional diagnostic tests can’t detect these variants, say researchers from Scotland’s University of Edinburgh and collaborators from Zimbabwe. Their findings point up the urgency of including specific tests to identify these disease variants, improving…