The Lupus Foundation of America and American College of Rheumatology have started a campaign to let African-American and Hispanic women know that they are at higher risk of developing lupus. The aim of the “Be Fierce, Take Control” campaign is to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of lupus among the…
MyHealthTeams, a San Francisco-based start-up that creates social networks for people with lupus and other chronic diseases, has obtained a second multi-million-dollar round of financing from Qiming Venture Funds. The $7.3 million came from a $100 million fund that Seattle-based Qiming U.S. Healthcare Fund created to back American…
Exagen Diagnostics has developed a blood test to keep tabs on the conditions of people with lupus and the kidney disease lupus nephritis. The company has made the test, which it calls the AVISE SLE Monitor, available to doctors throughout the United States. The New York State Department of Health has conditionally approved the test,…
Lupus patients with a history of kidney disease, but now in remission, should not be advised against a wanted pregnancy — even if they show serologic activity, or positive anti-double-stranded DNA antibodies and low complement levels (C4), results from the PROMISSE trial show. Women in the study based on these findings, “…
An injected formulation of Benlysta (belimumab) is a safe and effective lupus treatment, according to a Phase 3 clinical trial that tested an alternative to administering the therapy intravenously. Researchers reported the results of the 52-week BLISS-SC trial in Arthritis & Rheumatology. The article was titled “…
Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) showed clinically significant improvement and a significant decrease in their use of anti-inflammatory glucocorticoids after six months of treatment with Benlysta (belimumab), the Canadian OBSErve study showed. The study results also highlight a care gap in real-world clinical settings, as more than 40 percent of physicians did not…
Youngsters with an allergy-susceptibility condition known as atopy have worse cases of lupus when diagnosed and poorer outcomes than patients without atopy, a study reports. The research, “Atopy in children with juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus is associated with severe disease,” was published in the journal PLoS One. Juvenile systemic…
Voclosporin, an investigational therapy developed by Canada’s Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, is more effective at treating lupus nephritis (LN) than other calcineurin inhibitors, according to data from the ongoing Phase 2B AURA-LV (AURA) trial (NCT02141672). Dr. James Tumlin, the study’s lead author and clinical investigator, gave a presentation, “Steroid Sparing Efficacy of Voclosporin in…
American lupus patients will get an unusual chance in person or online to tell therapy developers and regulators what future treatments ought to do for them. Three national organizations are sponsoring the Washington-area gathering on Sept. 25, which those unable to make the trip can participate in by watching a…
Researchers at Michigan State University have received a five-year $2.3 million grant to learn how the omega-3 fatty acid DHA can stop the development of systemic lupus erythematosus after exposure to silica. The team’s earlier research showed that eating food rich in DHA acted to prevent silica from…