Drug Used in Organ Transplants, Shows Hope for Lupus Patients

In another case of a drug that is designed to do one thing, turning out to be a possible help for something else, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that a compound that is related to a drug used to prevent rejection in organ-transplant patients has a possible use in lupus patients.

Lupus is a disease where the persons own immune system attacks the person's cells and tissues. Normally special cells that are called B cells that produce anitbodies recognize any foreign bodies. However, if a person has lupus the B cell created antibodies think of the body's own cells are foreign bodies and attack them instead.

There currently is no cure for lupus, which is life threatening because of the damage it causes to organs like the kidneys, lungs and heart, as well as the central nervous system, joints, blood vessels and skin. Patients with lupus can show signs of severe fatigue, joint pain, skin rashes, hair loss and neurological problems. Lupus affects an estimated one million people in the US alone.

There are certain genetic strains of mice that are inclined to develop lupus. The drug that they used in the study is analog of rapamycin and the results showed that it shut down certain biochemical processes in the B cells of the mice. It stopped the production of the antibodies and therefore the development of lupus in every strain of the lupus prone mice. It also helped improved symptoms in al of the mice even though they had different genetic makeups that caused the disease. Rapamycin is used not only in organ transplant patients but also for treating cancer.

The next part of the research is going to involve humans. If they discover that humans have the same biochemical pathways as the mice, then they feel that the research done in the mice can be applied to humans.

The project was funded jointly by the National Institutes of Health and the Alliance for Lupus