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There is hope on the horizon for Lupus patients. A new multi-year clinical trial has commenced, testing whether a type of immunotherapy currently used to treat cancer can also treat lupus. This would truly be life-changing for lupus patients, who until now, could only manage their painful lupus symptoms, and had no hope for a cure.
A disease with no cure
Lupus, also known as Systemic lupus erythematosus, according to a UC Davis Health press release, is an autoimmune disease wherein a person’s immune system attacks their own body. The symptoms vary in severity but can lead to chronic inflammation and organ damage including to the skin, kidneys, hearts, lungs, and joints.
The Guardian reports that as of now, there is no cure for lupus, and patients often have to remain on medicine their whole lives in order to manage the disorder.
“Lupus is a disease that requires lifelong medication, but this therapy has the potential to change that, which is incredibly exciting. This groundbreaking new therapy marks a significant milestone in our research into lupus,” Professor Ben Barker, consultant rheumatologist at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, told The Guardian.
T-cells and B-cells
So how does the treatment work? Lupus occurs, according to the press release, when a body’s B-cells, which are the cells that create antibodies. start mistakenly attacking a person’s own body. It is somewhat fitting then that the potential cure for the disease works using the body’s own cells as well, but in this case, T-cells.
T-cells are also an important part of the body’s immune system. In the case of the treatment, they are filtered out of the patient’s bloodstream and then genetically modified to target the pesky B-cells causing the disorder. This allows new, healthy B-cells to proliferate in the body.
This type of genetic modification is often also used in cancer treatments. In that case the cells are programmed to attack the tumor.
A February 2024 study in the New England Journal of Medicine, which administered this type of treatment to 15 patients, eight with lupus, and the others with other autoimmune diseases garnered hopeful results. There were no relapses among the lupus patients in that study, even after two years.
The new study, being carried out at UC Davis Health as well as eight other medical institutions around the world, hopes to continue the progress that the earlier study showed, according to the university press release.
It is incredible to think that millions of people, mostly women may now have the chance to live a life without the fatigue, pain, and disheartening symptoms of lupus. And it is likewise incredible to think that the cure for a body attacking itself lies in the body itself.
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