A new study has raised hope that lupus disease could be treated with new range of drugs consisting plant extract.
New findings by a biomedical engineer and his team at the University of Houston (UH) suggest that new drugs may not include the long list of adverse risks and side effects often associated with current treatments for this disease.
Lupus, or systemic lupus erythematosus, is a progressive, degenerative disease in which the immune system turns against itself, attacking a person's healthy tissue, cells and organs. Symptoms range from debilitating pain and fatigue to organ failure and a host of other impairments.
Though there is no cure, a UH researcher and his team were actively working toward finding new treatments. Chandra Mohan and his colleagues presented new findings that detailed the use of a synthetic, plant-derived compound, abbreviated CDDO, that was shown to effectively suppress the multiple steps of lupus development in murine models, including the onset of kidney disease.
One of the most common organs to be attacked by lupus is the kidney, manifesting in lupus nephritis. While this condition doesn't affect all lupus sufferers, an estimated 40 percent of lupus patients develop it. Lupus nephritis, which caused inflammation of the kidneys and impairs their ability to effectively rid the body of waste products and other toxins, is the leading cause of lupus-related deaths and results in tens of thousands of hospitalizations per year.
Mohan said that the development of lupus was a two-step reaction. First, the immune system developed antibodies that attacked the body's own DNA, then that activated immune system attacks the kidneys. They found that CDDO may block both of these steps.
He added that the next step for this research was to confirm whether the CDDO compound suppresses the immune system across the board, or whether it simply suppressed the activation of the specific signaling pathways that lead to the development of lupus.
The findings are published in the journal of the American College of Rheumatology, Arthritis and Rheumatology.