Biomarkers Predict Success of Lupus Nephritis Drug Therapy
Kidney involvement (nephritis) can be one of the more serious complications of lupus. Since lupus nephritis can be severe and the therapy can be toxic, it is important to be able to predict which patients would most benefit from long-term treatment. It would be particularly useful if specific factors could provide some advanced predictions about whether or not there would be successful responses to treatments for lupus nephritis. The researchers hoped to identify factors that might be seen after 8 weeks of treatment for nephritis that might predict whether or not the treatment would be successful after 24 weeks.
Contraceptive Counseling and Use Among Women With Lupus
Lupus is most common in women of reproductive age and, therefore, issues surrounding pregnancy and contraception are of importance to most lupus patients. Since it is best to plan pregnancy when lupus is adequately controlled, it is important that women with lupus have access to adequate methods of contraception. This study examined the value of contraceptive counseling for women with lupus. The researchers also hoped to learn whether contraceptive counseling had effects on the frequency of use of contraceptives among women with lupus.
MicroRNAs Common to Three Lupus Mouse Models
MicroRNAs are small pieces of genetic material. Specific blueprints in the DNA can be “turned off” by these microRNAs so that some proteins won’t be made. The role of microRNAs in lupus has recently been studied in mouse models of lupus. If common sets of microRNAs could be identified in different mouse models of lupus with different genetic backgrounds, then this would very likely increase their usefulness for the study of lupus in people. The researchers hoped to identify a set of microRNAs common to three different strains of mice that have been genetically modified in different ways to have lupus, making it more likely that something similar to these microRNAs might be found in substantial percentages of people.