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Query: UMLS:C0409974 (lupus)
 22,386 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Six systems for defining and evaluating disease activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) (the Ropes system, the National Institutes of Health [NIH] system, the New York Hospital for Special Surgery system, the British Isles Lupus Assessment Group [BILAG] scale, the University of Toronto SLE Disease Activity Index [SLE-DAI], and the Systemic Lupus Activity Measure [SLAM]) were tested on 25 SLE patients who were selected to represent a range of disease activity. The patients were evaluated independently by 2 physicians on 2 occasions approximately 1 month apart. Differences between patients demonstrated the largest source of variation in scores, accounting for 56-84% of the total variance, depending on the instrument. Differences between physicians (i.e., error) showed the next largest variation, 11-28% of the total variance, and differences between visits made up 5-16% of the total. The BILAG, SLE-DAI, and SLAM had the best inter-visit and inter-rater reliability. Convergent validity was shown by the strong correlations of scores among the different instruments (r = 0.81-0.97). All instruments correlated highly with the physicians' clinical impression of disease but less well with their evaluation of disease severity. The number of American Rheumatism Association criteria for SLE that were met by the patients correlated poorly with the physicians' global evaluation and with the scores of the instruments. The patients' self-reported disease activity scores correlated highly with the physicians' assessments of disease activity (r = 0.85-0.91), and the mean values from self-reports and from physicians' assessments were nearly equal. In contrast, severity scores correlated less well between self-reports and physician assessments (r = 0.49-0.69), and mean self-reported severity values were lower than the means from physicians. The BILAG, SLE-DAI, and SLAM systems appear to have better psychometric properties than the others for clinical research.
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PMID:Reliability and validity of six systems for the clinical assessment of disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus. 277 20

Systemic lupus erythematosus is characterised by the presence of antinuclear autoantibodies (ANA). Native DNA, histone proteins and small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNP) are the main targets of these ANA-s, but some of them may derive against the entire chromatin, which is composed of the listed elements, and also against its fundamental unit, that is nucleosome. Authors investigated at the first time the frequency and the concentration of anti-nucleosome antibodies in a group of 107 consecutively selected Hungarian lupus patients. They calculated correlation between these parameters and the activity as well as organ--mainly kidney--manifestations of the disease. The frequencies of positive anti-nucleosome, anti-dsDNA and anti-histone antibodies were 39.2, 28.0 and 47.6%, respectively. All the three autoantibodies were present more frequently in cases with lupus nephritis, and this correlation was significant by statistical respect. Also a positive correlation was found between the concentration of these autoantibodies and activity of the diseases (SLE-DAI). Results suggest that long disease duration (mean 8.5 year) and consequently low disease activity (mean DAI: 3.28) may stand at the background of the relatively low occurrence of the measured ANA-s. Besides anti-dsDNA, the determination of anti-nucleosome and anti-histone antibodies can be useful in the diagnosis and monitoring of SLE. Authors discuss the possible role of anti-nucleosome autoantibodies in the pathogenesis of lupus nephritis.
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PMID:[Significance of anti-nucleosome (anti-chromatin) auto-antibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus]. 1157 8

The present aim is to investigate the relationships between aerobic capacity and disease activity, organ damage, health-related quality of life (HRQL) and physical activity in 34 women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) with low-to-moderate disease activity and organ damage. Mean age was 51 (SD 10) years, disease duration 17 (SD 11) years. Aerobic capacity (maximal oxygen uptake/VO2 max) was measured with a bicycle ergometer exercise test. Overall disease activity was assessed with Systemic Lupus Activity Measure (SLAM) and the modified Systemic Lupus Erythematosus-Disease Activity Index (modified SLE-DAI), overall organ damage with the Systemic Lupus International Collaboration Clinics/American College of Rheumatology-Damage Index, [SLICC/(ACR)-DI], HRQL with the 36-item Short-form health-survey (SF-36) and physical activity with a self-assessed question. The women who were low-to-moderately physically active had 89-92% (P < or = 0.001) of VO2 max predicted for sedentary women. Maximal oxygen uptake (L/min, mL/min/kg) correlated to SF-36 physical function (rs = 0.49, rs = 0.72) (P < or = 0.01), but not (rs < or = 0.25) to other HRQL scales, overall disease activity or organ damage or physical activity. The correlation between aerobic capacity and physical function and the absence of correlation between aerobic capacity and physical activity, suggest a possible disease-related factor behind the low aerobic capacity. However, with no correlation between aerobic capacity and overall disease activity and organ damage, low physical activity may contribute to the low aerobic capacity in our sample.
Lupus 2008 Feb
PMID:Aerobic capacity correlates to self-assessed physical function but not to overall disease activity or organ damage in women with systemic lupus erythematosus with low-to-moderate disease activity and organ damage. 1825 Jan 32

Double-stranded (ds) DNA, DNA- or RNA-associated nucleoproteins are the primary autoimmune targets in SLE, yet their relative inability to trigger similar autoimmune responses in experimental animals has fascinated scientists for decades. While many cellular proteins bind non-specifically negatively charged nucleic acids, it was discovered only recently that several intracellular proteins are involved directly in innate recognition of exogenous DNA or RNA, or cytosol-residing DNA or RNA viruses. Thus, endosomal Toll-like receptors (TLR) mediate responses to double-stranded RNA (TLR-3), single-stranded RNA (TLR-7/8) or unmethylated bacterial cytosine (phosphodiester) guanine (CpG)-DNA (TLR-9), while DNA-dependent activator of IRFs/Z-DNA binding protein 1 (DAI/ZBP1), haematopoietic IFN-inducible nuclear protein-200 (p202), absent in melanoma 2 (AIM2), RNA polymerase III, retinoic acid-inducible gene-I (RIG-I) and melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5) mediate responses to cytosolic dsDNA or dsRNA, respectively. TLR-induced responses are more robust than those induced by cytosolic DNA- or RNA- sensors, the later usually being limited to interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3)-dependent type I interferon (IFN) induction and nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB activation. Interestingly, AIM2 is not capable of inducing type I IFN, but rather plays a role in caspase I activation. DNA- or RNA-like synthetic inhibitory oligonucleotides (INH-ODN) have been developed that antagonize TLR-7- and/or TLR-9-induced activation in autoimmune B cells and in type I IFN-producing dendritic cells at low nanomolar concentrations. It is not known whether these INH-ODNs have any agonistic or antagonistic effects on cytosolic DNA or RNA sensors. While this remains to be determined in the future, in vivo studies have already shown their potential for preventing spontaneous lupus in various animal models of lupus. Several groups are exploring the possibility of translating these INH-ODNs into human therapeutics for treating SLE and bacterial DNA-induced sepsis.
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PMID:Nucleic acid sensing receptors in systemic lupus erythematosus: development of novel DNA- and/or RNA-like analogues for treating lupus. 2045 14