Sometimes in medicine, a drug originally created to serve one purpose
finds success in treating another condition. Such is the case in a
recent study which
found that a drug originally developed to boost the immune system in
cancer patients is now showing promise as a potential treatment for
lupus, a serious autoimmune disease where the body attacks its own
organs and tissues.
Using much smaller doses of a natural immune
system protein called IL-2 than needed to treat cancer patients,
researchers saw that the drug was able to restore balance to the
overactive immune system of lupus patients. IL-2 proved to be both safe
and effective and could be involved in clinical trials for lupus
treatment very soon.
For the study, IL-2 was given to people whose lupus wasn’t responding
well to standard treatments. The drug was able to calm the patients’
hyperactive immune systems “through multiple mechanisms,” Professor Eric
Morand, co-author of the study, explained.
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