New mothers with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are less likely to breastfeed their infants, or to do so for a shorter span of time, than are woman without this disease — despite guidelines favoring breastfeeding throughout a baby’s first months of life, a study in Argentina reports. The study, “…
Children born to mothers with lupus may end up with developmental disabilities, according to a review of more than two dozen studies. Learning and reading difficulties and dyslexia are among the problems the children may experience as they develop, researchers said. The review, “The development of offspring from mothers…
The Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) has named as its newest national ambassador Dorothy Toran, who heads production at Sirens Media, a division of ITV America. Toran lost her younger sister, Weade Williams-Bridges, to lupus in September 2016. She vowed to honor her sister’s legacy by leveraging her position as a TV producer…
An ongoing online survey to examine the distribution of blood types among lupus patients could provide important information about why people develop the disease, researchers say. The survey is a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Scleroderma Education Project. The two groups have already conducted a similar survey among…
French pharmaceutical firm Neovacs has completed enrollment for a Phase 2b clinical trial (IFN-K-002) to evaluate the efficacy and safety of IFNα-Kinoid to treat systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). “The completion of enrollment is an important milestone for our IFN Kinoid program and confirms the interest of leading clinicians conducting our trial in this novel…
New York researcher Virginia Pascual has received the $150,000 Lupus Insight Prize for work that promises to improve our understanding of events leading to the disease’s flare-ups. Pascual is a pioneer in lupus biomarkers, or molecular signals of the disease. She was recently appointed founding director of the Gale and…
Neuropsychiatric symptoms in people with systemic lupus erythematosus may be caused by increased levels of the inflammatory molecule interferon-alpha in their brains, according to a study published in the journal Nature. But a treatment now in clinical trials may be able to arrest the processes that lead to those symptoms. The…
A combination of voclosporin and standard therapy eliminated the inflamed-kidney condition lupus nephritis in twice as many patients as those who received standard care alone, according to a Phase 2b clinical trial. The voclosporin combo also lengthened the time it took for lupus nephritis to re-emerge, its maker, Aurinia Pharmaceuticals,…
A Phase 2a trial (NCT02185040) evaluating Celgene International‘s CC-220 in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) reports promising results, according to data presented at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR) 2017, held June 14-17 in Madrid. “While the outlook for patients with lupus has improved over the last 75 years, treatment…
Patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were able to control their disease with Benlysta (belimumab) plus standard of care (prednisone), pharmaceutical giant GSK said in announcing the results from a 10-year continuation study. GSK presented the study’s results at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2017), held June 14-17 in Madrid. U.S.