"Patients experience blood disorders, pulmonary or cardiac
inflammation (pleurisy, pericarditis, myocarditis), increased
susceptibility to solar radiation (photosensitivity) or ulcerations
affecting certain mucous membranes or cerebral impairment."

Is it mere coincidence bloodletting works FOR pleurisy .. ? .. and the
drugs used in lupus are merely bloodletting chemical .. stand ins .. ?
IE: cyclophosphamide or hydroxychloroquine reduce red blood cell
count.

---------------

Hope For The Treatment Of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2008) — Systemic lupus erythematosus is an
chronic, autoimmune, inflammatory disease that progressively damages
numerous organs in the body. Treatments are available, but none is
specific to the disease, and they can have severe adverse effects. A
CNRS team at the Institut de biologie moléculaire et cellulaire in
Strasbourg has discovered a protein fragment, the P140 peptide, that
is capable of treating lupus-affected mice.
A series of clinical studies was implemented by the Alsace-based
company ImmuPharma France. The initial results of phase II studies in
patients with the disease were published on November 26 on the website
of the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism. The results are highly
encouraging, and confirm that the P140 peptide may be a very good
candidate for the specific treatment of this disease.

Lupus has a multifactorial, environmental and immunologic origin, and
affects several million people throughout the world; in France, the
number of patients is estimated to be between 80,000 and 100,000 (90%
of them young women between the ages of 18 and 30 years).  One of its
specificities is that it takes different forms in different
patients.   The most common clinical signs include intense joint pain,
facial skin lesions and more or less severe renal impairment.  In many
cases, patients experience blood disorders, pulmonary or cardiac
inflammation (pleurisy, pericarditis, myocarditis), increased
susceptibility to solar radiation (photosensitivity) or ulcerations
affecting certain mucous membranes.  They may also suffer from
cerebral impairment, which is always severe.

For many years, this disease was poorly diagnosed and treated, but
today it is better controlled.  It nonetheless remains very
incapacitating and requires life-long follow-up, with unpredictable
and extremely painful flare-ups.  Palliative therapies are available,
but none is specific to this condition.  They mainly consist in
corticosteroid therapy and, in severe forms, the administration of
immunosuppressant drugs that may have serious adverse effects,
particularly when taken for long periods (cardiovascular disorders,
obesity, diabetes, impaired fertility, some cancers and increased
susceptibility to infections).

In autoimmune diseases such as lupus, the body has lost its ability to
recognize its own constituents and attacks them as if they were
external pathogens.  In 2001, scientists in the CNRS Laboratoire
d'Immunologie et chimie thérapeutiques, led by Sylviane Muller at the
Institut de biologie moléculaire et cellulaire (CNRS), discovered and
patented a compound that is capable of restoring the immune system to
a normal status.  When treated with a fragment of a nuclear protein,
the P140 peptide, lupus-affected mice exhibited a lifespan similar to
that of unaffected animals.  Their renal disease was significantly
diminished and they presented with much less severe inflammatory and
joint symptoms.

The drug discovery and development company ImmuPharma, founded in 2004
by Dr Robert Zimmer with the support of Muller and two other
researchers from the Laboratory, has funded all steps in the
regulatory development process that led, firstly, to a phase IIa study
(1) and secondly to a larger-scale phase IIb study.

The phase IIa clinical study was carried out in two centers in
Bulgaria on 20 lupus patients who received three subcutaneous
injections of the P140 peptide at 15-day intervals.  It was shown that
this peptide did not generate any adverse effects (side effects) in
the patients, apart from minor redness at the injection site that
rapidly regressed.  The efficacy of P140 was demonstrated by a
reduction in the anti-DNA auto-antibodies that are typically found in
lupus patients.  Immune globulin levels, which are also elevated in
lupus patients, were also regulated.  Another very important
observation was that the international disease activity score (SLEDAI)
(2) was significantly reduced in the group of patients who received
the lowest dose of P140 peptide.

These results, which might have been unhoped-for after such a short
period of treatment, wholly confirmed the preclinical observations
obtained in the laboratory in model mice with lupus.  The scientists
also pointed out that this new compound has the major advantage of not
affecting the overall immune system, unlike current therapies.  It was
shown in animals that repeated doses of P140 peptide did not affect
their ability to resist viral infection, unlike immunosuppressants in
general.  Thus P140 peptide constitutes the first potential candidate
for the specific treatment of lupus.

A phase IIb clinical study involving some 200 patients is currently
under way in South America and Europe.

Notes:

1) Phase I clinical studies are performed in healthy individuals to
test the safety of the compounds administered. Phase II studies are
then initiated in patients. During phase IIa studies, patients are
told which therapeutic compound they are receiving. Then, in phase IIb
studies, patients are not informed whether they are receiving the
compound or a placebo.

2) The international SLEDAI score is calculated from a series of
disease-specific criteria (number of joints affected, severity of
pain, renal impairment, etc.). Each criterion is scored, so that a
global score can then be calculated as being representative of disease
severity.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Journal reference:

Muller et al. Spliceosomal peptide P140 for immunotherapy of systemic
lupus erythematosus: Results of an early phase II clinical trial.
Arthritis & Rheumatism, 2008; 58 (12): 3873 DOI: 10.1002/art.24027

Who loves ya.
Tom

Jesus Was A Vegetarian!
http://tinyurl.com/2r2nkh

Man Is A Herbivore!
http://tinyurl.com/a3cc3

DEAD PEOPLE WALKING
http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk