A team at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has made a discovery that may lead to better treatments for lupus, a debilitating autoimmune disease that affects tens of millions of people all over the world.
Therapies for lupus do exist, but they do not directly target its underlying causes, primarily because the origins of the condition are not entirely known. The condition appears to arise from both genetic and environmental factors and involves complex autoimmune processes. A key feature of the disease is the activity of antibodies – also known as "autoantibodies" – that attack the patient's own cellular proteins, including DNA and RNA. "In this new study, TSRI researchers determined that the absence of a certain type of immune cell – or a key signaling molecule within the cell ( SLC15A4 )– could protect against lupus. In a mouse model of the disease, patients without the cell or signaling molecule showed little impairment of their normal immune functions.
Therapies for lupus do exist, but they do not directly target its underlying causes, primarily because the origins of the condition are not entirely known. The condition appears to arise from both genetic and environmental factors and involves complex autoimmune processes. A key feature of the disease is the activity of antibodies – also known as "autoantibodies" – that attack the patient's own cellular proteins, including DNA and RNA. "In this new study, TSRI researchers determined that the absence of a certain type of immune cell – or a key signaling molecule within the cell ( SLC15A4 )– could protect against lupus. In a mouse model of the disease, patients without the cell or signaling molecule showed little impairment of their normal immune functions.
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