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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

#51

Post by ww520 »

atombender wrote: post #8
BenFranklin100 wrote: post #4

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…

Great info. Looks like the field has advanced tremendously.

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

#52

Post by wpasc »

galangalalgol wrote: post #3
ipunchghosts wrote: post #2

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

It has been my hope that the number of me/cfs cases would finally drive enough research into autoimmune disorders in general, that we might finally figure it out. It seems very poorly understood from an outside perspective.

For what’s it’s worth, autoimmune drugs are amongst the highest grossing due to their cost. Rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, MS all do have a lot of study. I wouldn’t say it’s enough, but I don’t think the prevalence of me/cfs alters anything due to the high prevalence of the other diseases. Immune disorders are definitely mysterious though

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

#54

Post by Aerroon »

roywiggins wrote: post #17
kylehotchkiss wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

There is evidence that inflammation is among the causes of depression: https://wapo.st/3xHLze1 > pro-inflammatory drugs can induce people to become depressed, which suggests a causative link. In one seminal study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Miller and his colleagues conducted a double-blind study of 40 cancer patients undergoing treatment with interferon-alpha, an inflammatory cytokine. > Though…

Is this why something like vitamin C can help with depression?

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

#55

Post by hliyan »

hsuduebc2 wrote: post #44

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

I've had some sort of autoimmune thing hitting me almost every decade of my life (and then clearing up): eczema, asthma, vitiligo and most recently psoriasis. Usually quite mild, but I worry that the next one in the progression will be arthritis. Most doctors' explanations can be summarised into a shrug. Would be a relief to know what's going on in there.

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

#56

Post by psychopomp »

hliyan wrote: post #55
hsuduebc2 wrote: post #44

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

I've had some sort of autoimmune thing hitting me almost every decade of my life (and then clearing up): eczema, asthma, vitiligo and most recently psoriasis. Usually quite mild, but I worry that the next one in the progression will be arthritis. Most doctors' explanations can be summarised into a shrug. Would be a relief to know what's going on in there.

Autoimmune disorders all have a common root of gut dysfunction. I suffered from chronic inflammation for five years, the ultimate solution was a double capsule probiotic and eating more fiber. Most probiotics have a single capsule that opens in the stomach and all those CFUs are killed by stomach acid.

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

#58

Post by spondylosaurus »

hliyan wrote: post #55
hsuduebc2 wrote: post #44

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

I've had some sort of autoimmune thing hitting me almost every decade of my life (and then clearing up): eczema, asthma, vitiligo and most recently psoriasis. Usually quite mild, but I worry that the next one in the progression will be arthritis. Most doctors' explanations can be summarised into a shrug. Would be a relief to know what's going on in there.

Hey: do you have any stomach problems? Because that was me (up to and including the arthritis part) and then my "IBS" turned out to be Crohn's disease and once I started treating that 90% of my other shit vanished. Things were so bad back then that I was seriously considering a hip replacement to make the pain stop, but today I just hopped off the exercise bike and feel totally fine.

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

#59

Post by fnord77 »

BenFranklin100 wrote: post #4

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…

> Autoimmune diseases, of which lupus is but one of many, are essentially black boxes.

Hardly. Treatments are down to the kinase level these days, which is just one step away from the gene transcription factors.

In fact it is pretty amazing how well understood the complex mechanism of autoimmune diseases are.

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

#60

Post by spondylosaurus »

MR_Bulldops wrote: post #47
kylehotchkiss wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

And some autoimmune treatments started out as failed attempts at developing cancer treatments, too. Happy accidents!
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