SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus) or lupus is an autoimmune disorder in which the the body's immunological defence system attacks healthy cells, damaging muscles, joints, kidneys and other body parts.




Treatments that are currently used against lupus are high doses of steroid and other medications that often bring serious side effects.

In a new mice study, Indiana researcher have tested on mice the vaccine-like treatment that they have developed and found that it shows promise for treating lupus: the new treatment reduced disease symptoms and extended the lives of laboratory mice that researchers use to study lupus.

According to the study's researchers:

"The new approach targets abnormal immune cells in a way that marks the rogue cells for destruction by the body's immune system without affecting healthy cells.

Called folate-hapten-targeted immunotherapy, the treatment greatly reduced damage to the kidneys and other tissues and also prolonged the lives of the mice by 10 months in comparison to untreated animals.

We suggest that this therapy warrants further evaluation as a possible approach for treatment of SLE in humans."

Finding of the above study have been reported in the September/October issue of ACS' Molecular Pharmaceutics.

The said vaccine-like treatment - folate-hapten-targeted immunotherapy - definitely needs further investigation in order to bring light into the approximately 1.5 million in the U.S. affected by lupus.

Find more details from Science Daily.