Systemic lupus erythematosus treatment: Positive clinical results

The British pharmaceutical GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and U.S. Human Genome Sciences (HGS) announced on Monday positive clinical results for a second study of treatment against systemic lupus erythematosus, a chronic inflammatory disease.

The study lasts for 76 weeks and involves 819 patients from 136 locations and 19 countries, which were administered different doses of Benlysta (belimumab) and the standard treatment against the disease, or a placebo and standard therapy.

A significant improvement was found in 43.2% of patients who received 10 mg/kg belimumab and the standard treatment against 33.8% who received placebo and standard therapy.

A first positive study was published in July.

According to the two groups, no new treatments against lupus has been launched on the market for over 50 years.

Systemic lupus erythematosus, which affects about 5 million people worldwide including 1.5 million in the United States, is expressed most frequently  in joint pain, skin lesions, facial and kidney damage, more or less severe, and can reach the nervous system and blood.

It is an autoimmune disease. The body attacks itself as if there were foreign elements. Current available treatments (corticosteroids, immunosuppressants) have palliative effects only.

90% of patients with lupus are women under 45 years.

Definition: A chronic, relapsing, inflammatory, and often febrile multisystemic disorder of connective tissue, characterized principally by involvement of the skin, joints, kidneys, and serosal membranes. It is of unknown etiology, but is thought to represent a failure of the regulatory mechanisms of the autoimmune system. The disease is marked by a wide range of system dysfunctions, an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and the formation of LE cells in the blood or bone marrow.

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