Lupus
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), also called lupus, is an autoimmune disorder characterized by the immune system attacking the body's own tissues and organs, leading to inflammation and damage. The severity of the disease varies, from mild cases only involving the skin to severe cases affecting multiple organs, including the brain. Lupus sufferers experience flares, or intervals of active disease, and remissions in disease. The disease most predominantly occurs in women of childbearing age, but also affects children, adolescents, and men. While the cause of lupus is still unknown, various genetic, environmental, and infectious causes have been associated with its development. Current treatments for lupus vary depending on the extent of the disease, and may change over time. Some medications used to ease symptoms include nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antimalarial drugs, corticosteroids, and immunosuppressive medications, though many of these drugs carry their own risks.
What is Lupus?
Lupus, also called systemic lupus erythematosus or SLE, is a disease that affects your immune system. Normally, your immune system fights infections caused by germs.
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A team of researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) used a new method of pinpointing potential disease-causing changes in the genome to identify two new potential therapeutic targets for lupus, while also paving the way for more accurately identifying disease-causing variations in other autoimmune disorders.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has cost hundreds of thousands of human lives, besides more than 11 million cases. Caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the disease was initially thought to be more severe in the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions. However, it started to manifest in children after the peak of the first wave.
The dynamics of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) expression in the kidney could have implications for the infectivity and pathogenicity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), say researchers.
A new Colombian study published on the preprint server bioRxiv in June 2020 describes the use of trained dogs to identify severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infected humans by scent alone. This would allow uninfected people to work together safely, rescuing the economy without driving up medical costs.
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the world, researchers are still trying to understand the many ways in which it can manifest and its pathogenesis. A new report published on the preprint server medRxiv* in June 2020 shows that one possible mechanism of disease in COVID-19 is the production of antiphospholipid antibodies.
Rush University Medical Center has opened enrollment for a new clinical trial investigating whether the drug hydroxychloroquine is better than a placebo in preventing COVID-19 infection in healthy people working in health care settings.
Professor Mark Cragg speaks to News-Medical about his research which involves turning autoimmunity drugs into anti-cancer treatments.
A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in June 2020 shows that the drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) suppresses a form of immunity called ‘trained immunity,’ with repercussions for its potential use to treat COVID-19.
Researchers at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center have been actively engaged in the effort to develop treatments or other control strategies that can help communities worldwide to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A new study from Lawson Health Research Institute and Western University suggests that fecal transplants could be used as a treatment for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Dr. Leszek Ignatowicz, a professor in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University, has received a five-year, $1.95 million federal grant to study what causes autoimmunity in the human body.
The sacred oath taken by physicians during graduation from medical school to "First do no harm," the first words of the Hippocratic Oath, provides a strong impetus for a commentary just published in The American Journal of Medicine.
The World Health Organization (WHO) suspended the hydroxychloroquine trial amid the coronavirus pandemic. The decision comes after the study findings published in The Lancet reported issues on the drug's efficacy and safety. Now, the journal has issued a correction on the figures reported in the study.
Researchers at Uppsala University and Uppsala University Hospital have developed a new method to measure levels of the medication hydroxychloroquine in patients with rheumatic disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
The malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which has been promoted as a potential treatment for Covid-19, is known to have potentially serious effects on heart rhythms.
A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital examines changes in prescription patterns in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A large observational study suggests that treatment with the antimalarial drug chloroquine or its analog hydroxychloroquine (taken with or without the antibiotics azithromycin or clarithromycin) offers no benefit for patients with COVID-19.
COVID SHIELD is a major collaborative effort led by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in partnership with human data science company IQVIA.
Researchers from Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology have developed a novel method for diagnosing and monitoring autoimmune disorders.
Variants in a gene of the human immune system cause men and women to have different vulnerabilities to the autoimmune diseases lupus and Sjögren's syndrome, according to findings published in the journal Nature.