Sjögren’s Syndrome News

Hand osteoarthritis was more frequently associated with patients who had primary Sjögren syndrome compared with patients who had systemic lupus erythematosus, according to results.

Recently published results showed transforming growth factor-beta signaling may be suppressed collectively by Sjögren’s syndrome-associated micro ribonucleic acid as opposed to pro-inflammatory interleukin-12 and toll-like receptor/nuclear factor-kappa beta pathways in Sjögren’s syndrome pathogenesis.

NEW YORK CITY — Diane R. Mould, PhD, president of Projections Research Inc. discussed pharmacodynamics in the use of biologic therapies in rheumatic, gastroenterological and dermatologic diseases here at the Interdisciplinary Autoimmune Summit.

NEW YORK CITY — Stephen I. Katz, MD, PhD, director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases at the NIH, presented the keynote speech at the Interdisciplinary Autoimmune Summit and urged rheumatologists, dermatologists, gastroenterologists and other health care professionals who treat patients with autoimmune diseases to work together. He also discussed the future work of NIH research into autoimmune diseases from a multidisciplinary approach.

The presence of rheumatoid factor and level of disease activity may be risk factors for the development of lymphoma in patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome, according to recently published research.

The most highly read articles on Healio.com/Rheumatology about recently published research into Sjögren’s syndrome focus on symptoms, such as pruritus, and patient subtypes related to disease activity. Techniques to identify patients at risk for high disease activity also were highlighted.

Patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome may have a high incidence of pruritus that may negatively impact sleep and quality of life, according to recently presented data.

Disease activity was higher in patients with Sjögren’s syndrome who also had certain autoantibodies, which were significantly associated with the presence of anti-Ro60, anti-Ro52, anti-La, rheumatoid factor and hypergammaglobulinemia, as well as higher ocular surface staining scores, lower Schirmer’s test scores and minor labial salivary gland biopsy focus scores of 3 or higher, according to recently published research.

Although patients with Sjögren’s syndrome who had anti-centromere antibodies had more severe exocrine glandular dysfunction and more pronounced inflammation of the labial salivary glandular, this characteristic was not linked with fibrosis, according to recently published research.

Investigators of a recently published study found invariant natural killer T cells ex vivo in peripheral blood from patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome, but not in their salivary glands, and detected anti-SSA-specific B cells in target tissue.