Lupus Research funded by American association

A project on Lupus led by Salomé Pinho was recently distinguished with one of seven innovation awards (and the only European one) awarded this year by the American association “Lupus Research Alliance (LRA)”. With a grant of 280 thousand euros, this funding will allow the team to move closer to the clinic with the aim of finding new therapies to control lupus.

Winning this prize has a special meaning for Salomé Pinho: “It is the largest non-governmental, non-profit funding agency for Lupus research in the world. In addition, all donations that the association receives go towards supporting cutting-edge lupus research with the goal of discovering better diagnoses, better treatments and, ultimately, a cure for lupus. It is, therefore, a source of immense pride to receive this award, but it also represents recognition of the work we have been developing at i3S and in Portugal in close collaboration with hospitals such as the Centro Hospitalar Universitário de Santo António-Porto”.

This reward follows the results that Salomé Pinho's team recently published in the prestigious scientific journal Science Translational Medicine. The i3S team focused on the study of lupus and wanted to understand to what extent the abnormal presence of sugars (glycans) on the surface of the kidney determined the presentation of this autoimmune disease. “We found that changes in glycan composition confuse the immune system. It realizes that something is wrong and activates a certain type of immune cells that lead to the production of pro-inflammatory molecules, contributing to the establishment of the inflammatory process”, explains Salomé Pinho, leader of the Immunology, Cancer & GlycoMedicine group.

Inês Alves, and first author of the study, says that “we were able to identify a new mechanism underlying the development of an autoimmune pathology. The team also realized that it is possible to repair this anomalous modification of glycans and thus control the auto-reactive immune response, preventing the kidney from being attacked by immune cells and thus preventing the development of lupus”.

Inês Alves highlights the impact of the study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine on translational research and the importance of the award in continuing this work to a stage closer to the clinic: “The discovery of a new mechanism underlying the uncontrolled immune response that characterizes Lupus it opens the door to investigating new therapeutic approaches that may have an impact on a wide range of autoimmune diseases. We hope the award will make it possible to transform this mechanism into a therapeutic target and then use it to control the disease and improve the quality of life of these patients”.

This discovery is particularly important because lupus affects millions of people worldwide and is a complex disease, as the immune system can attack any part of the body, including the kidneys, brain, heart, lungs, blood, skin, and joints. More than 90% of patients are women and the disease often appears between the ages of 15 and 45, that is, in the most active and productive phase of women. African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asians and Native Americans are two to three times more at risk than Caucasians.