Study: Scientists identify cause of lupus, way to reverse it

[PeteS in CA]

Study: Scientists identify cause of lupus, way to reverse it

https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2024/07/11/Scientists-identify-cause-lupus-reverse-study/4691720712433/

Lupus is caused by a specific defect in the immune system that can be reversed, potentially curing the autoimmune disorder, a new study claims.

The disease appears to be caused by malfunctions in an immune system pathway that regulates cells' response to environmental pollutants, bacteria and toxins.

Insufficient activation of this pathway, controlled by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), results in an overproduction of immune cells that attack the body itself rather than foreign invaders, researchers said.

By fully activating this immune system response, "we can reduce the number of these disease-causing cells," said researcher Dr. Jaehyuk Choi, an associate professor of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

[Kamaji]

That would be pretty awesome.

[GtHawk]

That would be pretty awesome.

Yes, sadly to late for my mom at 92 1/2 years she won't benefit.

[PeteS in CA]

Many Americans have friends who have been affected by lupus. For some it's sad that it has taken so long (not implying negligence), but the prospect of an effective treatment is good news.

[Smokin Joe]

Hydroxychloroquine has been used as a treatment. This speaks of something that may even lead to a cure. My Mother-in Law (whom I liked) suffered from it.

[PeteS in CA]

Hydroxychloroquine has been used as a treatment. This speaks of something that may even lead to a cure. My Mother-in Law (whom I liked) suffered from it.

I mainly think of HCQ as an anti-malarial, but evidently it has been approved in the US for use to treat symptoms of lupus since 1956.

[libertybele]

I mainly think of HCQ as an anti-malarial, but evidently it has been approved in the US for use to treat symptoms of lupus since 1956.

Isn't HCQ the same drug that they (reluctantly) used to treat COVID?

[Smokin Joe]

Isn't HCQ the same drug that they (reluctantly) used to treat COVID?

Against COVID, HCQ acts as an ionophore to get Zinc into the cells, where Zinc wrecks the virus attempt to replicate. Zinc did the same to SARS in vitro and In vivo in a study done in 2005. The trick is getting the zinc through the cell membrane, and both Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin (both, incidentally, antiparasitic drugs) accomplish this.

For that reason neither was proposed alone, but with zinc supplementation and a macrolide antibiotic, which stymies opportunistic bacterial infections and (idiopathically) mutes immune response to keep the body's immune system from attacking healthy cells (known as a 'Cytokine storm').

Unfortunately, those regimens would have constituted viable (and cheap!) treatment options and that would have nullified the Emergency Use Authorization for the mRNA shots, and cost Pharmaceutical houses billions in profits, so the regimens were suppressed, to the degree that people who had prescriptions for HCQ for Lupus or RA could not get their prescriptions filled in a timely fashion (I have first hand knowledge of the difficulty in getting prescriptions filled, as a relative was taking HCQ for RA when all this hit).

[Kamaji]

Yes, sadly to late for my mom at 92 1/2 years she won't benefit.

True enough; but others will benefit.