Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic inflammatory disease. The clinical course of SLE is variable and may be characterized by periods of remissions and chronic or acute relapses. Treatments are mostly based on anti-inflammatory drugs (corticosteroids), immunosuppressive drugs, and antimalarials, which all have significant side effects.
The project of Philippe Pierre’s team aims at finding better methods to define the best required dose of these drugs for a single patient and defining novel approaches to follow disease progression and therapy efficacy.
The team will focus mostly on the use of antimalarial drugs and their effect on plasmacytoid DCs, which have been implicated in SLE progression though their high- type-I interferon secretion capacity.
The team will therefore propose, in complement of clinical scores, new approaches and markers to measure the impact of AM therapies on the immune system.
