INTRODUCTION Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an inflammatory autoimmune disease where an interplay between acute phase proteins and cytokines are involved in disease activation. AIM AND OBJECTIVES This case control study was performed to investigate interrelationship between high sensitivity C-reactive proteins (hs-CRP), Interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels and disease activity among SLE patient...

OBJECTIVES Quantitating gene expression is a potential method of developing biomarkers in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Because of the known pathological role of B cell activating factor (BAFF) in SLE, we explored the association between BAFF gene expression and clinical activity in SLE. METHODS A total of 275 patients with SLE completed this phase of a prospective observational study. ...

OBJECTIVE SLE is an autoimmune disorder characterized by abnormal complement activation. Numerous new biomarkers have recently been used to diagnose or monitor disease activity in patients with SLE. We checked the levels of erythrocyte-bound C4d (E-C4d), an activation-derived fragment of C4 that is deposited on the erythrocytes, under different conditions of SLE in order to correlate these leve...

OBJECTIVE Simple measures of type I interferon (IFN) activity constitute highly attractive biomarkers in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We explore galectin-3-binding protein (G3BP) as a novel measure of type I IFN activity and serum/plasma biomarker in large independent cohorts of patients with SLE and controls. METHODS Serum and plasma G3BP concentrations were quantified using ELISA. Ty...

Nucleosomes are the dominant autoantigens in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and immune complexes involving nucleosomes are the major cause of tissue damage. The activity of DNase I, the enzyme responsible for nucleosome degradation, has been found to be decreased in patients with SLE. However, it is not known whether DNase activity is a clinically useful parameter. The aim of...

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem autoimmune disease. Emerging data suggests that T helper 17 (Th17) cells play a pathogenic role in SLE and the increased number of these cells correlates with disease activity. In recent years, 1α, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25VitD3) has been considered as an immunomodulatory factor. Objective: To investigate the effect of 1,25VitD3...

Background Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an incurable autoimmune disorder with complement activation playing a key role in the pathogenesis of immune-mediated tissue injury. While quantifying complement to monitor SLE disease activity has been the standard of care since the 1950s, decreased complement levels are not consistently associated with flares. Objective We seek to clarify the...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients have an increased risk of atherosclerosis. Identification of at-risk patients and the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis in SLE remain elusive. Paraoxonase 1 (PON1) and anti-apolipoprotein A-I antibody (anti-Apo A-I) appear to have a potential role in premature atherosclerosis in SLE. The aim of this work was to study PON1 activity and anti-Apo A-I antib...