The research results were published in the rheumatology yearbook, a well-known international journal in the field of rheumatology. Courtesy of the hospital
Old medicine has a new use! New findings by Chinese experts: rapamycin or potentially effective treatment for lupus erythematosus
June 12 ( Chen Jingye Jiaqi Yuan Huiyun ) Rapamycin is a metabolite secreted by soil Streptomyces found in the soil of Easter Island in Chile, and is currently mainly used for anti-rejection after organ transplantation.
Renji Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine disclosed on the 12th that the team of Bao Chunde, chief physician of the Rheumatology Department of the hospital, and Zhang Xiaoming, a researcher at the Shanghai Pasteur Institute, found that rapamycin may be a new potential effective treatment for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). It is reported that the research paper was published in the international rheumatology field well-known journal - Rheumatology Yearbook.
As we all know, the body's immune system is responsible for immune defense, immune surveillance and immune regulation, among which the correct recognition of "self" and "non-self" is a key feature of the immune system to play a normal function. If immunomodulatory function is disrupted, the body produces an abnormal immune response and inflammation against the components of the "self", and it will suffer from autoimmune diseases.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) often occurs in women of childbearing age, the patient has a variety of autoantibodies in the body, clinically manifested as multi-system multi-organ involvement, if the treatment is not timely, the kidney, nervous system, heart and lungs, blood system and other organs of the whole body failure, serious and even cause patient death. According to Bao Chunde, in the 1980s, Professor Chen Shunle of Renji Hospital found that the incidence of systemic lupus erythematosus was about 70 in 100,000 among female textile workers in Shanghai.
The etiology of SLE is complex, the specific pathogenesis is not yet clear, and the current clinical treatment methods are limited. Bao Chunde's team and Zhang Xiaoming's research group used complex flow cytometry and multicolor immunohistochemistry to find that there was an increase in the proportion of atypical memory B cells (i.e., AtMs) in the peripheral blood of newly untreated patients with SLE. The researchers found that the presence of rapamycin target protein complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling pathway in AtMs was highly activated.
This study found that rapamycin can effectively block the production of AtMs and effectively inhibit the secretion of Autoantibodies by AtMs, which further suggests that rapamycin may be a new potential effective treatment for SLE.
It is understood that as a national clinical key specialty, the rheumatology department of Renji Hospital covers all diseases of rheumatic diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APS), inflammatory myopathy (IIM), Behcet's disease, adult Steele disease (AOSD), etc. After more than 30 years of continuous exploration, many pioneering work has been completed, especially in the clinical and scientific research level of SLE. (End)