For Release at Noon, Monday Nov. 9
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Scientists Identify Peptide That May Prevent Serious Lupus Complication
Researchers have discovered a technique that may be able to prevent kidney damage caused by lupus, according to research presented at the American College of Rheumatology National Scientific Meeting Nov. 8-12 in San Diego, Calif.
Lupus is an autoimmune disease that impairs quality of life and is often life-threatening. Survival rates have improved over the past 20 years with medications that suppress the immune system indiscriminately, which carries the possibility of fatal infections. More recent research is aimed at suppressing only the undesirable immune responses.
Scientists at the University of California--Los Angeles identified a specific sequence of amino acids that forms the peptide that sets off a chain of events resulting in kidney damage. Both a natural and a synthetic version of this peptide -- known as a T-cell determinant -- were administered to lupus-prone mice intravenously once a month. Control groups were administered either with peptides that were not T-cell determinants or with saline. The researchers believe that administering the T-cell determinants induces tolerance so that the body does not react to this harmful peptide in the future.
Normally, mice with this form of lupus die of kidney failure within one year. Those in the control groups lived an average of 35 weeks. In contrast, 80% of those treated with the T-cell determinants were alive at 60 weeks, and the majority of them had no kidney damage at all.
Bevra H. Hahn, MD, Professor of Medicine at UCLA, led the team conducting the research. "People with lupus have T-cell functions similar to those in mice," said Dr. Hahn. "A similar strategy might be developed to use in therapy of human lupus."
The American College of Rheumatology is the professional organization for rheumatologists and health professionals who share a dedication to healing, preventing disability and curing arthritis and related rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases. For more information on this meeting, see http://www.rheumatology.org/educ/nm98/nm98.html.
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