Autoimmune diseases, which affect 1.5 million people in the United States, cause the body’s immune system to attack its own tissues.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have revealed that a specific combination of antiviral proteins can cause symptoms and influence treatment outcomes for lupus patients.
was announced on cell report medicineresearchers suggest that this finding could lead to changes in the way clinicians treat patients with the disease.
Lupus, which affects up to 1.5 million people in the United States, is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system attacks its own tissues.
In a clinical trial of a lupus treatment designed to suppress interferon I, researchers found that patients’ symptoms did not improve, even though pre-treatment genetic testing showed high interferon I levels. I observed.
The research team predicted that two other interferon groups, interferon II and interferon III, may be responsible for poor treatment response in lupus patients.
To investigate different combinations of interferon I, II, and III and their overactivity, the researchers took 341 samples from 191 lupus patients and analyzed the samples in response to the presence of each group. We measured the activities of three interferon groups using engineered human cell lines. .
The researchers found that the majority of participants fell into four categories. A combination of increased interferon I, II, and III. A combination of increased interferon II and III. Interferon levels are also normal.
The team then looked at some of the connections between these interferon combinations and the lupus system. In patients with elevated interferon I levels, lupus was associated primarily with symptoms affecting the skin, whereas in patients with elevated interferon I, II, and III levels, lupus was associated with severe lupus symptoms, including organ system damage. I saw symptoms.
Eduardo Gómez Banuelos, assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, said: They work as a lupus team and can give patients different symptoms of the disease.
“Assessing a patient’s elevated interferon concomitant dose will provide a better understanding of how the patient responds to treatment and will allow clinicians to classify patients into clinical subtypes of lupus. .”
