Active clinical trials for "Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic"

Physicians' assessment of disease activity in SLE is fundamental but challenging. The Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI-2K) is one of the most commonly used disease activity indices. Clinical trials experience suggested that the disease activity instruments did not function well on their own, and composite measures were developed to address this issue. This approach has been adopted after learning from clinical trials that the absence of a robust sensitive index is a major flaw when designing a trial. Another issue with clinical trials is the confounding effect of corticosteroids, which to date have been the most effective treatment for the management of lupus. However, unregulated use of corticosteroids in drug trials decrease the investigator's ability to differentiate between the tested drugs and placebo as they appear to enhance response among the placebo arm and thus mask the effect of the tested drug. In this study, the aim is to develop and validate a new index, SLEDAI-2K Glucocorticosteroid Index (SLEDAI-2KG). It is very challenging to evaluate improvement in drug trials in the context of the standard of care treatment which includes corticosteroids. This novel index, SLEDAI-2KG, will help to overcome the confounding effect of corticosteroids and to allow for more accurate description of disease improvement and thus facilitate accurate investigations of new therapeutic agents.

Cyclophosphamide is widely used in the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases such as lupus nephritis. However, there is considerable variability in the response to cyclophosphamide treatment. Cyclophosphamide is a pro-drug that requires initial activation by CYP liver enzymes. Recent clinical studies have indicated a possible role of one CYP enzyme, CYP2C19 in this activation step. This enzyme has a genetic polymorphism (variants which lack functional activity) and people who have inherited these variants are poor metabolisers of certain drugs. The aim of this study is to determine whether response to therapy in a New Zealand population of lupus nephritis patients is determined by cyclophosphamide bioactivation (the metabolic phenotype) and CYP genotype. Currently there is no way of predicting a patient's response to cyclophosphamide. An understanding of the factors which contribute to the therapeutic failure in lupus nephritis is particularly important due to the high morbidity and mortality associated with this disease. There are other treatment options for lupus nephritis patients who fail to respond to cyclophosphamide. If successful, this study may help identify patients who are unlikely to respond to cyclophosphamide and thus should not be unnecessarily be exposed to the drug and may justify the use of newer, more costly immunosuppressive drugs such as mycophenolate mofetil and rituximab.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is the most common systemic autoimmune disease. The clinical manifestations are severe and affect multiple target organs such as the kidney, central nervous system, skin, heart and joints. Despite the progress made in the therapeutic approach with new immunosuppressive regimens, morbi-mortality is still high. Therefore, it's important to identify new biomarkers to help clinicians to predict severity and evolution of the disease for better adaptation of treatments and try to improve the prognosis. RAGE (Receptor for Advanced Glycation Endproducts) : RAGE (Receptor for Advanced Glycation Endproducts) is an ubiquitous membrane receptor, involved in development of many diseases such as diabetes, chronic renal failure but also in vascular remodelling, inflammatory, infectious deseases and cancer. RAGE regulates a number of crucial cell processes like inflammation, and tissue and cellular homeostasis. RAGE is able to bind not only the advanced glycation end products (AGEs) such as pentosidine, carboxymethyllysine (CML), methyl-glyoxal-hydroimidazolone-1 (MG- H1), but also other ligands such as HMGB1 (high mobility group box1), and S100A8/A9 proteins which have been correlated in recent studies to the activity index of SLE. The activation of RAGE leads to a cascade of intracellular signaling and activation of the transcription factor NF-ΚB . NF-ΚB enable the traduction of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-6, IL-1α ,IFN-γ. In SLE, these cytokines involved in perpetuation of inflammation and tissue damages including lupus nephritis. Moreover, the activation of RAGE induces the expression of adhesion molecule such as sICAM -1 and sVCAM -1 wich were recently involved in SLE vasculitis. Soluble forms of RAGE, sRAGE and esRAGE : RAGE is a proinflammatory membrane receptor. But RAGE also exists in soluble plasma forms, esRAGE (secreted form) and sRAGE (a truncated form as cleaved by MMP9 and ADAM10 enzymes). esRAGE and sRAGE have the same ligand-binding specificity as RAGE and may function as a 'decoy receptor' by binding pro-inflammatory ligands and preventing them from accessing cell surface RAGE (Kierdorf and Fritz, 2013). Therefore, both soluble forms have an anti-inflammatory action. Several studies have shown a decrease in circulating levels of sRAGE in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis, or Sjögren Syndrome compared with healthy controls. However, the role of RAGE in SLE remains unknown. RAGE and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, recent advances : Our team (Laboratory of Nephrology, CNRS UMR 7369, URCA) showed in a study in lupus RAGE knockout mice (B6/ MRL-FAS lpr/J RAGE-/-) a strong involvement of RAGE in systemic manifestations SLE. Recently, another report showed that sRAGE has an anti-inflammatory effect on the lupus nephritis and could be a potent therapy in mice. In humans, two studies show a correlation between the plasma level of sRAGE and lupus phenotype ( Nienhuis et al. , 2008). Working hypothesis : Based on the results and those of the current studies, the investigators think that RAGE axis and its soluble forms play a crucial role in the complex pathogenesis of SLE. The investigators hypothesize that plasma levels sRAGE and esRAGE are a reflection of the activity and the development of SLE in humans. Soluble forms of RAGE and ligands may be novel biomarkers of SLE and sRAGE a potent therapeutic target.

The aim of this proposal is to test if anti-BAFF antibody can restore a normal threshold of tolerance in patients in two auto-immune diseases along the RITUX-PLUS study in immune thrombocytopenia, and along the Believe study in SLE. This work would help to conclude whether or not the 'double hit' therapy may help to reset the immune system toward a more tolerogenic profile. The aim is to compare the polyreactivity and autoreactivity, of immature (central tolerance) and naïve B cells (peripheral tolerance) in the peripheral blood along the RITUX-PLUS STUDY and the BLISS BELIEVE study after treatment (B-cell reconstitution time).

Systemic lupus erythematosus is inflammatory autoimmune disease that affects over one million people in the United States. It has a higher prevalence and incidence rate among women compared with men, and among African Americans compared with Caucasians. Despite advances in treatment, standardized mortality rates in SLE remain three times higher than in the general population. The risk of mortality is significantly increased because of renal disease, cardiovascular disease, and infection.The etiology of SLE is multifactorial, with genetic predisposition, environmental factors and epigenetic alterations are involved. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this systemic autoimmune response remain largely unknown. A key issue in the pathogenesis of lupus is how intracellular antigens become exposed and targeted by the immune system.

Many laboratory markers can be measured for assessment of Lupus activity as aberrant manufacturing and imbalance of the cytokines of T-helper cell which already have been implicated within autoimmunity pathogenesis as IL-18 and IL-10 levels are usually elevated in lupus sufferers and correlated with SLEDAI score IL-17 has been linked to immune-mediated organ damage in several autoimmune diseases and recently it has been linked to pathogenesis of a murine model of lupus and human lupus Diverse cytokine abnormalities which common in lupus patients may skew T cells differentiation into IL-17-producing CD4+ and double negative T cells. This could promote the autoimmune process by activation of immune cells &stimulation of proliferation of B-cell and production of antibody

The aim of the current study is to investigate if there is GIT involvement in pt's with SLE particularly protein losing enteropathy also its prevalence among the studied cases and it's relation to disease activity .

Polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids (ω3 PUFAs) are essential nutrients. Studies indicate that the incidence of Major Depression (MD) is inversely related to the consumption of fish (which are rich in ω3-PUFAs) and to the concentration of ω3 PUFAs in the plasma or Red Blood Cell (RBC) membranes. In several studies, the ω6 to ω3 ratio was elevated (ω6 PUFAs are pro-inflammatory, compared to ω3). ω3 PUFAs are also inversely associated with anxiety and neuroticism but apparently not with somatization. Supplementation of fish oil alleviates joint pain in patients with auto-immune disease. Inhibition of pro-inflammatory cytokines (which induce both pain and depression-like symptoms) by ω3 PUFAs may underlie the benefit conferred by fish oil consumption . RBC ω3 PUFA content is lower in patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and chronic fatigue syndrome, compared to healthy controls. The ω3 PUFA status of fibromyalgia patients has not been assessed. Magnesium is an essential nutrient and plays a regulatory role in neural transmission. It is not known whether magnesium concentration is associated with pain in humans. The objectives of the current study are to 1) compare the mean RBC omega-3 content in female fibromyalgia patients compared to that of healthy controls and female SLE patients, and to 2) assess the correlation between RBC omega-3 content and between the severity of physical (e.g. pain) and mental (e.g. depression) in fibromyalgia and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE).

B cells are known to play an important role in auto-immune diseases by activating T cells, secreting inflammatory cytokines and autoreactive antibodies. However, a sub-type of B cells named regulatory B cells or Bregs has recently shown capacities to prevent or cure arthritis in mouse models. Bregs have also been identified in humans.

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease with an unknown cause and many challenges. Whilst corticosteroids and effective immunosuppressive therapy have transformed the management of patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus, one of the major causes of morbidity in Systemic lupus erythematosus patients is chronic, debilitating fatigue. Despite frequent occurrence of fatigue in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have been directly performed to examine fatigue-related changes in cortical motor function in Systemic lupus erythematosus. In this study, we hypothesized that Systemic lupus erythematosus patients with fatigue and depression versus Systemic lupus erythematosus patients without fatigue and depression would present an alteration of motor cortex excitability.