Lupus News and Research

Latest Lupus News and Research

Prenatal exposure to maternal antibodies linked to autistic behaviors in offspring

New research from the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute shows that an interaction between fetal brain cells and maternal antibodies could be linked with the repetitive behavior - also called stereotypies - that is characteristic of autism.

12 Feb 2008

Cellcept immunosuppressant further linked to birth defects

A new study documents malformations seen in an infant born to a kidney transplant recipient who had taken mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), a widely used immunosuppressant available commercially as Cellcept.

7 Feb 2008

Breakdown of kidney's self-cleaning ability makes them more vulnerable to dysfunction and disease

The kidney actively cleans its most selective filter to keep it from clogging with blood proteins, scientists from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveal in a new study.

30 Jan 2008

Genetics behind the disease systemic lupus erythematosus almost completed

A new study has mapped the risk factors behind the autoimmune disease SLE in the entire human genome.

22 Jan 2008

International team pinpoints the genes for lupus

An international team of researchers has pinpointed the genes involved in the auto-immune system disease lupus.

21 Jan 2008

Discovery of multiple genes linked to systemic lupus erythematosus

A landmark genetic study has identified multiple genes linked to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), or lupus, a debilitating autoimmune disease that affects an estimated 1.4 million Americans.

21 Jan 2008

Common variations in human DNA signal lupus risk

Scientists have pinpointed a set of common variations in human DNA that signal a higher risk for lupus in women who carry them.

21 Jan 2008

How anti-TNF compounds work

Powerful drugs used to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis have a profound, previously unrecognized effect on the immune system, breaking up molecular "training camps" for rogue cells that play an increasingly recognized role in autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

21 Jan 2008

Researchers find new way to block destructive rush of immune cells

Researchers have found a way to selectively block the ability of white blood cells to "crawl" toward the sites of injury and infection when such mobility drives disease, according to a study published today in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

15 Jan 2008

Researchers associate six new genetic variants with heart disease risk factor

Using new techniques for rapidly scanning the human genome, researchers have associated levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, two fats in the blood, to 18 genetic variants, six of which represent new DNA regions never before associated with the traits.

15 Jan 2008

Scientists link depression to a biological mechanism that affects the olfactory glands

Can't smell the roses? Maybe you're depressed. Smell too much like a rose yourself? Maybe you've got the same problem.

4 Jan 2008

Growing burden of arthritis in the U.S.

Arthritis is the most common cause of disability in the United States. Over the next 25 years as the Baby Boom generation continues to age, the toll of this disease will escalate.

3 Jan 2008

Protein's new role discovered in autoimmune disease

Investigators at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have identified the previously unknown role of a chemical 'messenger' leading to autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

3 Jan 2008

Two genes are important key to regulating immune response

A research team at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City has identified two genes that may be crucial to the production of an immune system cytokine called interleukin-10 (IL-10)

2 Jan 2008

Researchers prevent muscle weakness caused by myasthenia gravis

Severe muscle weakness caused by myasthenia gravis - a highly debilitating autoimmune disorder - can be prevented or reversed by blocking a key step in the immune response that brings on the disease, researchers at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine have found.

20 Dec 2007

UT Southwestern secures $5 million grant for lupus research

The division of rheumatic diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center has been awarded a five-year, $5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund the Center of Research Translation, which will investigate the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

20 Dec 2007

Controlling lupus - new drug targets found

Investigators at Hospital for Special Surgery have identified two new targets for drugs aimed at controlling lupus.

17 Dec 2007

Profound immune system discovery opens door to halting destruction of lupus

A researcher funded by the Lupus Research Institute (LRI) has discovered an entirely new and powerful molecular switch that controls the inflammatory response of the immune system.

14 Dec 2007

Molecular 'trip switch' shuts down inflammatory response

Like a circuit breaker that prevents electrical wiring from overheating and bringing down the house, a tiny family of three molecules stops the immune system from mounting an out-of-control, destructive inflammatory response against invading pathogens, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have found.

14 Dec 2007