Lupus patients should be checked for heart-valve abnormalities because the disease increases the risk of the heart condition, according to a study. Earlier research identified anti-phospholipid antibodies as a risk factor for this heart condition. The new study shows that systemic lupus erythematosus poses a risk in patients without the antibodies.
The Lupus Research Alliance is marking Lupus Awareness Month in May with a Breaking through for YOU campaign. “For us, May is more than 31 days of just raising awareness,” Margaret G. Dowd, the alliance’s co-CEO, said in a press release. “It is the time to provide the real…
Portuguese researchers discovered a new cellular mechanism that may explain how lupus and other autoimmune diseases develop. Their study, “T follicular helper and T follicular regulatory cells have different TCR specificity,” appeared in the journal Nature Communications. The immune system offers protection from pathogens and diseased cells.
Booming sales of Benlysta (belimumab) to treat adults with active, autoantibody-positive systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have led British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to invest $139 million in its manufacturing plant in Rockville, Maryland. The facility, which will expand the company’s bulk substance production by nearly 50 percent, will produce a new subcutaneous, self-injectable form…
EpiVax has licensed its Tregitope technology — a new approach to harnessing the power of regulatory T-cells in autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) — to an undisclosed global pharmaceutical company. The license will allow the company to enhance its existing drug development strategy for autoimmune diseases…
We live in an age where simpler has become better, yet again. A quick Google search will pull up hundreds of articles on how to simplify life, from having children to raising your aging parents. I have yet to come across one that helps those os us with…
Galapagos will collaborate with Gilead on a Phase 2 trial evaluating the effectiveness and safety of filgotinib as a treatment for the skin disease cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE). Lupus is an autoimmune disease affecting many systems and organs, which means many symptoms are associated with it. CLE is a skin…
The Lupus Foundation of America has started an online platform where patients can provide information about their lives that researchers can use. It will help patients as well as researchers understand lupus better, the foundation said. The Research.forME Lupus Registry will collect patients’ observations about caregivers’ experiences as well. The information will…
Many systemic lupus erythematous (SLE) patients suffer from vocal disorder, or dysphonia, and should get voice therapy to improve the overall quality of their lives. So argues an article, “Voice disorder in systemic lupus erythematosus,” that recently appeared in the open-access journal PLOS One. Back in the 1950s, people with SLE…
Aurinia Pharmaceuticals’ product candidate voclosporin continues to show promise in patients with lupus nephritis (LN), according to the company. In addition to meeting complete and partial remission endpoints at 48 weeks of the trial, treatment with voclosporin also met secondary endpoints, such as reduction in speed of remission, disease…