Therapeutic Interventions of Tissue Specific Autoimmune Onset in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

BACKGROUND: Systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus) is a female predominant autoimmune disease. The autoreactive B cells and T helper cells together are known to develop adverse immune responses in different tissues like kidney, bone, cardiovascular and central nervous system. Progression of disease is associated with deposition of immune complex which initiates tissue damage. The therapy for lupus still includes corticosteroids to reduce allergic manifestations and inflammatory immune responses. Recent observations suggested that, mycophenolate mofetil and cyclophosphamide treatment in combination with corticosteroids have benefit in lupus therapy.
METHOD: The prospect of B cell depletion by CD20 targeted monoclonal antibody Rituximab has been demonstrated in lupus patients. The CD52 specific monoclonal antibody Alemtuzumab is another proposition for lupus therapy. The drug Belimumab inhibits B cell activation by altering BAFF/APRIL signal cascade. Recent discovery of the CD22 targeted Epratuzumab also shows therapeutic prospect. The researches on new generation drugs for autoimmune lupus include search for inhibitors of CD40- CD40Ligand interactions, CD86 activation, selective modulation of complement cascades. The choice of inhibitors of transcription factor NF-κBp65 and selective modulators for estrogen receptor alpha are proposed areas of lupus drug discovery research. RESULTS &
CONCLUSION: Keeping a close eye on the mechanisms of disease onset, a comprehensive view is provided on recent therapy of systemic lupus erythematosus. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.