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Scientists discover a cause of lupus, possible way to reverse it
Scientists have discovered a molecular defect that promotes the pathologic immune response in lupus and demonstrated that reversing the defect may potentially reverse the disease.
Existing treatments often fail to control the disease, the study authors said, and have unintended side effects of reducing the immune system’s ability to fight infections. “We’ve identified a fundamental imbalance in the immune responses that patients with lupus make, and we’ve defined specific mediators that can correct this imbalance to dampen the pathologic autoimmune response,” said co-corresponding author Deepak Rao, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a rheumatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and co-director of its Center for Cellular Profiling. Ultimately, these changes lead to insufficient activation of a pathway controlled by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), which regulates cells’ response to environmental pollutants, bacteria or metabolites.
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