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Lupus Science and Medicine is a global, peer reviewed, Open Access, online journal that provides a central point for publication of basic, clinical, translational, and epidemiological studies of all aspects of lupus and related diseases. It is the first lupus-specific Open Access journal in the world and was developed in response to the need for a barrier-free forum for publication of groundbreaking studies in lupus.
* The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. The content of this podcast does not constitute medical advice and it is not intended to function as a substitute for a healthcare practitioner’s judgement, patient care or treatment. The views expressed by contributors are those of the speakers. BMJ does not endorse any views or recommendations discussed or expressed on this podcast. Listeners should also be aware that professionals in the field may have different opinions. By listening to this podcast, listeners agree not to use its content as the basis for their own medical treatment or for the medical treatment of others.

Lupus Science and Medicine podcast

Duane Peters of the Lupus Foundation of America follows up with Professor Ronald van Vollenhoven of the Amsterdam University Medical Centers to discuss the highlights of the 10th Annual Meeting of the Lupus Academy, which was held virtually on 16-18th April 2021. 

Lupus Science & Medicine is the official journal of the Lupus Academy and the abstracts from the event have been published as a supplement to the journal.

Lupus Academy website: lupus-academy.org/
Lupus Academy 2021 abstracts: lupus.bmj.com/content/8/Suppl_1

Lupus Science & Medicine Podcast Series

Lupus Academy 10th Annual Meeting Highlights

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America interviews Dr Susan Manzi from the Allegheny Health Network and Kathleen Arntsen from the Lupus and Allied Diseases Association, both based in the USA, about the Addressing Lupus Pillars for Health Advancement (ALPHA) Project. 

The ALPHA Project is the first global initiative to identify, prioritise and address top barriers in lupus impacting diagnosis, care, treatment and research. The diverse team includes lupus experts, clinicians, researchers, industry representatives, advocacy organisations and people with lupus, and there is a specific focus on the patient perspective.

Access the paper here: https://lupus.bmj.com/content/8/1/e000433

LS&M Podcast Series

The ALPHA Project

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America interviews Professor Eric Morand from Monash University in Australia and Dr Raj Tummala from AstraZeneca in the USA about phase II and III trials of the human monoclonal antibody anifrolumab.

Their pooled analysis of data from the MUSE, TULIP-1 and TULIP-2 trials showed that, in addition to demonstrating efficacy in adults with moderate to severe systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), anifrolumab was generally well tolerated with an acceptable safety profile. Anifrolumab was associated with an increased incidence of herpes zoster and respiratory tract infections and a lower reported rate of SLE worsening. This positive benefit–risk profile means that anifrolumab is a potential new treatment option for SLE.

Access the paper here: https://lupus.bmj.com/content/8/1/e000464

BMJ Podcast Series

Safety profile of anifrolumab in SLE patients

Duane Peters of the Lupus Foundation of America follows up with Professor Ronald van Vollenhoven of the Amsterdam University Medical Centers to discuss the highlights of the lupus research presented at the EULAR 2021 eCongress, which was held virtually on 2-5 June 2021.

EULAR Congress website: https://congress.eular.org/index.cfm
EULAR 2021 abstracts: https://ard.bmj.com/content/80/Suppl_1

Lupus Science and Medicine Podcast Series

EULAR 2021 eCongress Highlights

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America interviews Dr Stephen Balevic, Dr Rachel Randell and Professor Laura Schanberg from Duke University in the USA. They discuss the advantages and challenges of designing and implementing self-controlled clinical trials for paediatric lupus patients in a home setting, based on their experience of conducting the Individual Patient Exposure and Response in Pediatric Lupus (iPERSONAL) trial. Could this be a way to effectively deliver clinical trials in a post-pandemic world?

Access the paper here: https://lupus.bmj.com/content/8/1/e000494

Can you conduct clinical trials on lupus patients in a home setting?

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America interviews the Lupus Science & Medicine Editors-in-Chief, Professor Jill Buyon and Professor Ronald van Vollenhoven. They discuss the recent release of LSM's first Journal Impact Factor™, explaining how it has been calculated, and what it means for the journal, its authors and readers.  

Access all the LSM journal metrics: https://lupus.bmj.com/pages/top-cited-articles/ and https://lupus.bmj.com/pages/about/.

Lupus Science & Medicine

LSM's first Journal Impact Factor™

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America interviews Dr Jill Buyon, one of LSM's Editors-in-Chief, and Dr Philip Carlucci from New York University in the USA, a previous recipient of the LFA's Gina M. Finzi Memorial Student Summer Fellowship. They discuss their recent paper on the safety of kidney biopsies in patients with SLE enrolled in the Accelerating Medicines Partnership in the USA, which aims to identify potential targeted treatments for lupus nephritis. 

Access the paper here: https://lupus.bmj.com/content/8/1/e000522

Identifying therapeutic targets in lupus nephritis: is obtaining research tissue via biopsy safe?

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America interviews Dr Ronald von Vollenhoven, one of LSM's Editors-in-Chief, about the highlights of the 14th International Congress on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (LUPUS 2021) and the 6th International Congress on Controversies in Rheumatology and Autoimmunity (CORA). These events were held jointly as a virtual congress on 6-9 October 2021 (https://lupus2021.kenes.com) and showcased the best clinical, biological, and translational advances in the field of SLE and autoimmunity.

Highlights of the LUPUS & CORA 2021 joint congress

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America interviews Dr Jim Oates from the Medical University of South Carolina and Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, USA. They discuss his paper on developing risk prediction models in lupus nephritis to predict outcomes at the point of diagnosis, which can be used as a decision support tool to help inform treatment strategies for patients.

Access the paper here: https://lupus.bmj.com/content/8/1/e000489

Can you predict lupus nephritis outcomes using machine learning models?

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America interviews Francisca Lambert-Fliszar and Dr Evelyne Vinet from McGill University Health Centre in Canada. They discuss monitoring 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) metabolite levels to enable personalisation of immunosuppressive therapies prior to conception or during pregnancy, in order to most effectively and safely control the disease during this critical time. 

Access the paper here: https://lupus.bmj.com/content/8/1/e000519

Personalised metabolite monitoring during pre-conception and pregnancy in SLE patients

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America interviews Dr Jill Buyon, one of LSM's Editors-in-Chief, about the highlights of ACR Convergence 2021, which was held virtually on 3-9 November (https://www.rheumatology.org/Annual-Meeting).

Lupus Science and Medicine podcast series

Highlights of ACR Convergence 2021

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America interviews Jennifer He from the University of Western Ontario in Canada about her research into using neuropsychological battery tests to determine the degree of cognitive dysfunction in lupus patients. A high degree of variability in performance across multiple tests (a high dispersion score) is associated with a higher risk of cognitive dysfunction, so this can be a useful screening/diagnostic tool.

Access the paper here: https://lupus.bmj.com/content/8/1/e000511

Lupus Science & Medicine podcast series

Screening for cognitive dysfunction in SLE patients

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America interviews Dr Erik Anderson and Dr Meggan Mackay from the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in New York in the USA. They discuss their study into imbalances in quinolinic acid and kynurenic acid levels in the brain in SLE patients, and propose that the ratio between these two metabolites could be used as a new biomarker or therapeutic target for cognitive dysfunction.

Access the paper here: https://lupus.bmj.com/content/8/1/e000559

A new biomarker for cognitive dysfunction in SLE?

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America interviews Professor Iryna Kulyk from Indiana University in the USA and Professor Martin Kriegel from the University of Münster in Germany and Yale University in the USA. They discuss their study, presented at the Lupus 21st Century conference in September 2021, on the influence of the consumption of resistant starch (a type of dietary fiber) on the composition of the gut microbiota of lupus patients.

Access the abstract here: https://lupus.bmj.com/content/8/Suppl_2/A63.2.abstract

Could a high fiber diet positively impact the gut microbiome of SLE patients?

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America talks to Dr Sylvia Kamphuis and Dr Javad Wahadat from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam in the Netherlands about aiming for a Low Lupus Disease Activity State (LLDAS) in children with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). They outline the difference between LLDAS and clinical remission (CR), and discuss how LLDAS may be a more achievable target for patients than CR that nevertheless still brings significant clinical benefits in terms of decreasing damage accrual and improving health-related quality of life.

Access the paper here: https://lupus.bmj.com/content/8/1/e000571

Final Output for posting to BMJ SoundCloud account

Challenging but achievable: reaching Low Lupus Disease Activity State (LLDAS) in childhood-onset SLE

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America talks to Dr Cristina Drenkard from Emory University and Dr Teresa Brady from Clarity Consulting and Communications, both based in Atlanta, USA. 

They discuss their paper on the relationship between levels of self-efficacy and health behaviours and outcomes in black women with SLE. Their study specifically evaluated the associations between age, educational level and depression in SLE patients and the degree of pain and fatigue they experienced. These findings may help predict who might benefit most from self-efficacy-enhancing interventions to improve quality of life.

Access the article: https://lupus.bmj.com/content/9/1/e000566

What's the relationship between self-efficacy and quality of life in SLE patients?

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America interviews Professor Ronald van Vollenhoven from the Amsterdam University Medical Centers in the Netherlands and Dr Cynthia Aranow from the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in New York, USA. 

They discuss the efforts of the DORIS international task force to agree on a single definition of remission in systemic lupus erythematosus, which they hope will ensure that clinicians, patients and researchers in the field are all working towards the same outcome. 

Access the article: https://lupus.bmj.com/content/8/1/e000538

Defining remission in systemic lupus erythematosus

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America interviews Dr Peter Izmirly from New York University and Dr Elizabeth Ferucci from the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, both in the USA. 

They discuss the establishment of a network of population-based lupus patient registries in the USA and how these have been used to estimate the incidence rate of systemic lupus erythematosus using standardised data stratified by sex, race and ethnicity.

Access the article: https://lupus.bmj.com/content/8/1/e000614

Using patient registries to estimate SLE incidence rate in the USA

Duane Peters from the Lupus Foundation of America interviews Dr Gary Gilkeson from the Medical University of South Carolina about a phase I trial into the use of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) in refractory lupus patients in the USA, following impressive results of clinical improvement resulting from this therapy in China. 
The trial indicated that infusions of MSCs derived from the umbilical cord are safe and may be effective in treating mild to moderate systemic lupus erythematosus, with minimal adverse effects. 
Access the article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/lupus-2022-000704

Mesenchymal stromal cells: a potential new SLE treatment option?

Dr. Anna Wolska from the Lupus Foundation of America interviews Dr. Andrea Fava from Johns Hopkins University about Belimumab treatment in lupus nephritis. Dr Fava elucidates on the correlation between the decrease in urinary CD163 levels and the response to Belimumab treatment in Lupus Nephritis trials. The conversation provides important insights into the efficacy of this treatment option and potential biomarker use for personalized and precision medicine in the future.
Read the article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/lupus-2022-000763

Lupus Science and Medicine podcast

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