Non-Toxic Therapy For Lupus Successfully Tested On Patients - Onward and Upward!

Exciting news in the world of lupus research! Looks like researchers at Northwestern University have made great strides in designing a new non-toxic therapy that suppresses lupus in blood samples. The hope is that this treatment will replace drugs that carry nasty side effects (prednisone and cytoxin, to name a few!) with a vaccine-like therapy. This new treatment could keep lupus in remission in the body. Wouldn't that be amazing!?!

Read the entire article here, and check out the snippets below: 

Previous studies at Northwestern have showed that a nontoxic therapy using small pieces of proteins known aspeptides can block lupus in mice prone to contracting the disease. The peptides produce special regulatory T cells that are vital to suppressing the disease.

This new study was comprised of 30 lupus patients, ten of whom were active and twenty who were in remission, along with fifteen healthy patients. Each person had a blood sample cultured with low doses of the peptide.

Senior study author Syamal Datta, professor of medicine-rheumatology and microbiology-immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said, “We found that the peptides could not only generate regulatory T cells, but also that they block and reduce auto-antibody production to almost baseline levels in the blood cultures from people with active Lupus.”

“This approach shows that the peptides have the potential to work like a vaccine in the human body, to boost the regulatory immune system of those with Lupus, fight autoimmune antibodies and keep the disease in remission,” Datta added.

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Makes me tingle all over just thinking about the prospect. Here's hoping the Phase I Clinical Trials get underway soon, and experience the same success. My fingers are double-crossed!