Article: Simple blood test offers new hope to lupus patients

Sly Saint · May 9, 2025

A simple blood test could revolutionise treatment for lupus patients who do not respond to existing therapies, researchers say.

Previous studies have shown that patients with treatment-resistant lupus who are positive for the biomarker are 17 times more likely to respond to an innovative combination of drugs, which are available on the NHS but not currently used together.

The £1.7 million trial, Stratify Lupus, will involve testing the blood of lupus patients who haven't responded to conventional therapies such as steroids or immune suppressants.

If they are shown to have a specific biomarker, researchers, led by Michael Ehrenstein, a consultant rheumatologist at University College London Hospitals and professor of experimental rheumatology at University College London (UCL), will give them either the combination therapy or a placebo.

“If the results are positive, then we would apply to allow patients who are positive for the biomarker to receive the combination therapy on the NHS,” he said.

“Targeting the patients most likely to benefit from this treatment should make it deliverable on the NHS and improve patient access and outcomes.”
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Simple blood test offers new hope to lupus patients

Jonathan Edwards · May 9, 2025

I presume this is IgA2 aautoantibody which came up on a screen of response markers. Jo Cambridge showed them how to do it I gather!

It might turn out to be useful but I am not sure that people using these drugs have much idea what they are trying to achieve with them in lupus. It sounds as if they plan to set up a trial just looking at people with the biomarker but I am not up to speed on what is going on in the unit now.

Nightsong · May 9, 2025

"A randomised biomarker enrichment trial: IgA2 anti-DNA antibodies as a biomarker of response to belimumab after rituximab in systemic lupus erythematosus - STRATIFY lupus":

https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR169103

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Article: Simple blood test offers new hope to lupus patients

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