Systemic lupus erythematosus (also called lupus or SLE) is a disease where a person’s immune system attacks and injures the body’s own organs and tissues. Almost every system of the body can be affected by SLE.
More hospitalizations, higher charges, for kids with high blood pressure – Hospitalizations for children with high blood pressure and related charges dramatically increased during 10 years ending in 2006, according to a study published in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension. This nationally-based study is the first in which researchers examined hypertension hospitalizations in children.
Expectant mothers on antidepressants risk newborns with high blood pressure – Use of anti-depressants during pregnancy is risky for new borns to have persistent pulmonary hypertension – high blood pressure in the lungs, revealed by researchers.
FDA: 35 innovative new drugs approved in fiscal year 2011 — Report shows quick approvals of safe and effective medicines occur in the United States before other countries – Over the past 12 months, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved 35 new medicines for patients, like two new treatments for hepatitis C; a drug for late-stage prostate cancer; the first new drug for Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 30 years; and the first new drug for lupus in 50 years.
Blood test can predict rheumatoid arthritis before symptoms arise — Study confirms elevated cytokine levels are early indicator of disease – Researchers from University Hospital in Umea, Sweden, have identified several cytokines, cytokine-related factors, and chemokines that increase significantly prior to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease onset.
Lupus Research Institute Highly Encouraged by Benlysta Trial Results — First Phase 3 Lupus Drug Trial in Decades to Show Effectiveness. – Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: HGSI) and GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) announced that BENLYSTA (belimumab, formerly LymphoStat-B?) met the primary endpoint in BLISS-52, the first of two pivotal Phase 3 trials in patients with serologically active systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
Psoriasis associated with cardiovascular disease and increased mortality – Psoriasis skin disease is associated with atherosclerosis (a buildup of plaque in the arteries) characterized by an increased prevalence of ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, peripheral artery disease and an increased risk of death, revealed by researchers.
Potential preventative therapy for Type 1 diabetes – Scientists believe they may have found a preventative therapy for Type 1 diabetes, by making the body’s killer immune cells tolerate the insulin-producing cells they would normally attack and destroy, prior to disease onset.
The research could lead to development of new drugs that turn off the immune system in patients with autoimmune diseases ? such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. – University of Minnesota researchers have discovered a new way to turn genes off in human T cells, a type of white blood cell that helps the immune system fight infections. Turning off genes, through a process known as mRNA decay, is important for regulating the body’s immune response after fighting infection.
Researchers have made a number of important new discoveries into the mysterious autoimmune disease lupus. A consortium of international researchers has located new regions of the human genome associated with an increased risk for the disease. – Scientists have identified a number of genes involved in Lupus, a devastating autoimmune disease, in new research published today in the journal Nature Genetics. In an international genetic study of more than 3,000 women, researchers found evidence of an association between Lupus (systemic lupus erythematosus or SLE) and mutations in several different genes.
New Tel Aviv University (TAU) research links depression to loss of the sense of smell, suggesting that the blues may have biological roots. – Can’t smell the roses? Maybe you’re depressed. Smell too much like a rose yourself? Maybe you’ve got the same problem. Scientists from Tel Aviv University recently linked depression to a biological mechanism that affects the olfactory glands. It might explain why some women, without realizing it, wear too much perfume.
