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Scientists discover a cause of lupus, possible way to reverse it

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Re: Scientists discover a cause of lupus, possible way to reverse it

#41

Autoimmune diseases, of which lupus is but one of many, are essentially black boxes. It’s proven extraordinarily difficult to develop therapies in this area. As such, this is great news. Hopefully this research will encourage pharmaceutical and biotech companies to invest more resources into translating research findings into effective therapies. I haven’t read the paper yet, so I can’t comment on how this discovery…

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), which is key to this discovery, appears to be super relevant to psoriasis, another autoimmune disease. AhR has been known for a long time, but it seems it's been somewhat mysterious until a series of recent breakthroughs. In 2022, an AhR inhibitor called tapinarof, sold as VTAMA, was launched, and has shown itself to be one of the most effective treatments for psoriasis to date. I…

AhR also appears to be significant in (mouse models of) rosacea, which is another chronic inflammatory disease: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35926563/

Re: Scientists discover a cause of lupus, possible way to reverse it

#43

Autoimmune diseases, of which lupus is but one of many, are essentially black boxes. It’s proven extraordinarily difficult to develop therapies in this area. As such, this is great news. Hopefully this research will encourage pharmaceutical and biotech companies to invest more resources into translating research findings into effective therapies. I haven’t read the paper yet, so I can’t comment on how this discovery…

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), which is key to this discovery, appears to be super relevant to psoriasis, another autoimmune disease. AhR has been known for a long time, but it seems it's been somewhat mysterious until a series of recent breakthroughs. In 2022, an AhR inhibitor called tapinarof, sold as VTAMA, was launched, and has shown itself to be one of the most effective treatments for psoriasis to date. I…

If this approach touches Psoriasis and MS, there's a chance it'll be effective for IBDs too. That would be huge.

Re: Scientists discover a cause of lupus, possible way to reverse it

#45

I wonder if any of these findings help us better understand me/cfs.

Isn't thiamine tissue deficiency at the bottom of dysautonomia? Potentially leading to Alzheimer, MS, ALS over long periods of time if untreated depending on one's genetics and the way their body tries to adapt to it? I understand nobody tracks this over 30 years though. I think it's low-risk to try to address long-term tissue B1/B2/B3 deficiencies first and see if it helps. "The initial symptoms of thiamine deficien…

Yes for some cases and any doctor who knows anything about dysautonomia tests and treats for it. It’s not root cause for many though because dysautonomia is a syndrome with potentially hundreds of reasons with the biggest being post-viral (autoimmune hypothesis) and EDS (vein elasticity hypotheis).

Re: Scientists discover a cause of lupus, possible way to reverse it

#46
post #30

90% of House MD plots ruined

Maybe if one more painfully unfunny person repeats this tired joke that we see every time lupus is mentioned, it'll finally be funny. Let's find out!

To each their own. was a funny and nostalgic throwback. I haven't watched House in 15 years and haven't even seen it referenced since pre-pandemic.

Re: Scientists discover a cause of lupus, possible way to reverse it

#47

Autoimmune diseases, of which lupus is but one of many, are essentially black boxes. It’s proven extraordinarily difficult to develop therapies in this area. As such, this is great news. Hopefully this research will encourage pharmaceutical and biotech companies to invest more resources into translating research findings into effective therapies. I haven’t read the paper yet, so I can’t comment on how this discovery…

I have a good feeling we're going to make a fairly big impact on cancer in our lifetimes with mRNA and other new discoveries in our lifetime. Autoimmune issues I'm feeling much less confident about. It seems like so many of the therapies are "turn down the immune system". I wish there was wider study into autoimmune derived mental health complications too. Maybe I'm totally wrong on this (and I'm very OK to be proven…

I am here to restore your confidence about autoimmune issues.

Recently (and still in many cases) "turn down the immune system" was the treatment for most cancers. Of course, the purpose of anti-cancer drugs isn't to turn down the immune system. It just happens that the side effect of drugs that target cancer cells also target other rapidly-dividing cells like hair, endothelial, and immune cells.

In fact, chemotherapy drugs like Methotrexate are prescribed - at lower doses than for cancer patients - to people with Lupus and other autoimmune diseases.

There are similar challenges with cancer and autoimmune diseases, so progress in one might help progress in the other.

From the article: "They are now working to find ways to deliver these molecules safely and effectively to people." This is a challenge for many potentially effective cancer treatments as well.

Re: Scientists discover a cause of lupus, possible way to reverse it

#50

Let's hope that from eczema to lupus all these mysterious autoimmune diseases would be at least explained if not eradicated.

I wonder if allergies can eventually be fixed somehow as well. There has to be an immune or autoimmune reason why some people have tons of allergies and other people are perfectly fine.
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