One-Two Punch For Lupus
Michael Torrice · Chemical & Engineering News · 2015
In a patient with the autoimmune disease lupus, immune cells attack the body’s own tissues as if they were an invading pathogen. This can lead to damage to the skin, joints, kidneys, and even the brain. Now a team of immunologists reports that some of these errant immune cells have an overactive metabolism, and that inhibiting two key metabolic pathways can reverse lupus symptoms in mice (Sci. Transl. Med. 2015, DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaa0835). The study provides compelling evidence that a combination of metabolic inhibitors could be an effective lupus therapy, say Manan M. Mehta and Navdeep S. Chandel of Northwestern University in a perspective they wrote about the study. Before testing these inhibitors, Laurence M. Morel at the University of Florida and her colleagues first studied the metabolism of CD4+ T cells. In lupus, the immune cells command B cells to produce autoantibodies, which target the body’s own tissue. When T ...