- Researchers may have found the root cause behind the autoimmune disease lupus.
- Scientists at Northwestern Medicine found that lupus patients have an imbalance of T cells.
- This breakthrough could help develop better therapies for people with lupus.
Lupus is a chronic disease that can cause inflammation and pain in any part of the body. The disease impacts about 1.5 million Americans, but women are nine times more likely to develop lupus than men. And the cause of lupus has largely remained a mystery—until now.
New research published in the journal Nature may have found the root cause behind lupus, pointing to abnormalities in the immune systems of people with the disease.
“We’ve identified a fundamental imbalance in the immune responses that patients with lupus make," study co-author Deepak Rao, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a rheumatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said in a press release. "We’ve defined specific mediators that can correct this imbalance to dampen the pathologic autoimmune response."
So, what's the breakthrough, and what does this mean for lupus patients? Here's what to know.
What is lupus?
Let's back up a second: Lupus is an autoimmune disease marked by periods of flares, and symptoms can vary. They may include arthritis, fevers, fatigue, rashes, hair loss, swelling in the legs or around the eyes, pain while breathing, and stomach pain, according to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS).
Several famous women have spoken out about having lupus, including Selena Gomez and Halsey.
What did researchers find about the cause of lupus?
The study published in Nature found that there's a T cell imbalance in lupus patients. T cells, in case you’re not familiar with them, are white blood cells that are part of the immune system, per the National Cancer Institute (NCI). T cells develop from stem cells in the bone marrow and help protect the body from infection, the NCI says. They also may help fight cancer.
For the study, researchers compared blood samples from 19 people with lupus to blood samples from participants without the disease. The researchers found that people with lupus had too much of a T cell that’s linked with damage in healthy cells, plus too little of another T cell that works to repair cells.
What does this mean for lupus patients?
Current lupus treatments can vary, but options include anti-inflammatory drugs, corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, and biologic medications, the NIAMS says. But this research could change that.
“Up until this point, all therapy for lupus is a blunt instrument. It’s broad immunosuppression,” study co-author Jaehyuk Choi, MD, PhD, an associate professor of dermatology at Northwestern Medicine, said in a press release. “By identifying a cause for this disease, we have found a potential cure that will not have the side effects of current therapies.”
The study didn’t find a new treatment for lupus, but it does open up the odds that scientists can develop more effective treatments for patients in the future.