Focus on an Autoimmune Disease—Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that can involve neuropsychiatric symptoms that turn up early in the disease and can occur independently of non-neurologic SLE symptoms. Neuropsychiatric SLE is common and has a poor prognosis, yet its causes are poorly understood and there is no good therapy. Chaim Putterman, M.D., and colleagues have found evidence that a cytokine called TWEAK plays a major role in causing neuropsychiatric SLE in experimental animals, and that blocking TWEAK may be a novel treatment approach. Dr. Putterman has been awarded a five-year, $2-million NIH grant to explore the role of TWEAK and its cell-surface receptor, Fn 14, in causing neuropsychiatric SLE in a mouse model of the disease.
Posted on: Monday, February 09, 2015