Researchers in a new study discovered the causes behind the complex disease systematic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
According to the Lupus Foundation of America, researchers have found mechanisms behind the development of lupus.
As per the foundation, about 1.5 million people in the US have the life-threatening disease lupus, which can damage vital organs including the kidney, brain, and heart.
For this study, scientists examined the blood of 19 people with SLE and compared it with that of healthy individuals and found that Type I interferon modulates a receptor called the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) that increases the production of T cells that activate B cells.
Study author and Chair of the Lupus Foundation of America's Medical-Scientific Advisory Council, Karen Costenbader, explained, “This basic research, uncovering how interferon drives abnormal T and B cell interactions that cause the abnormal autoimmunity of lupus, is really exciting. It was very careful, well-conducted, hypothesis-driven research, which now suggests a new way that we might treat lupus, targeting this abnormal pathway by which a certain type of T cell stimulates B cells, which are the producers of autoantibodies in lupus.”
He further added, “We have new drugs for the treatment of lupus because of basic research such as this, uncovering how the T and B lymphocytes interact and identifying new targets for drugs to interrupt abnormal signalling."
Moreover, although the findings of the study are promising, for better validation, it need to be done on larger populations.
