Publications
Find coverage of the latest original articles on Lupus, focusing on those with data on therapeutic interventions and those that have clinical impact.
Domains for inclusion in a novel Treatment Response Measure for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (TRM-SLE): results of a modified Delphi study
Lupus Sci Med. 2025 May 6;12(1):e001484 doi: 10.1136/lupus-2024-001484
Connelly, et al. use Delphi methods to achieve consensus to include eight domains of active disease to define treatment response in a novel Treatment Response Measure for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (TRM-SLE).
Long-term effect of anifrolumab on patient-reported outcomes in systemic lupus erythematosus (TULIP-LTE): a randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 3 long-term extension trial
Lancet Rheumatol, 2025 DOI 10.1016/S2665-9913(25)00022-0
Strand et al. performed an exploratory analysis to assess patient-reported outcome measures, to investigate how patients with moderate-to-severe SLE perceive the effects of long-term treatment with #anifrolumab on their health status and health-related quality of life. They report improvements in health status and health-related quality of life, including differences favouring anifrolumab compared with placebo. These numerical improvements in patient- reported outcomes occurred alongside improvements in disease activity, reduced glucocorticoid doses, and a tolerable safety profile. These data suggest that anifrolumab is an effective treatment option that might improve health-related quality of life.
LLDAS and remission attainment with anifrolumab treatment in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: results from the TULIP and long-term extension randomised controlled trials
Ann Rheum Dis. 2025:S0003-496700071-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.ard.2025.01.016. Epub ahead of print
Morand et al. conducted a post-hoc analysis of the phase III TULIP-1 and TULIP-2 trials and their long-term extension, including 369 patients with moderate to severe SLE, to evaluate the long-term impact of anifrolumab on attainment of LLDAS and DORIS-defined remission. The results demonstrated that anifrolumab significantly improved the likelihood, speed, and duration of LLDAS and DORIS remission versus placebo over 4 years, with benefits sustained throughout the treatment period.
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Comparison of a voclosporin-based triple immunosuppressive therapy to high-dose glucocorticoid-based immunosuppressive therapy: A propensity analysis of the AURA-LV and AURORA 1 studies and ALMS
Lupus Science & Medicine 2024;11:e001319 DOI: 10.1136/lupus-2024-001319
Dall’Era et al. conducted a propensity analysis to compare voclosporin-based triple immunosuppressive therapy with high-dose GC-based regimens for active LN. Voclosporin showed fewer AEs, improved safety, and significantly reduced proteinuria over six months, suggesting a superior risk-benefit profile for patients with lupus nephritis.
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Cenerimod, a sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor modulator, versus placebo in patients with moderate-to-severe systemic lupus erythematosus (CARE): an international, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 2 trial
Lancet Rheumatol. 2024. Epub ahead of print. DOI: 10.1016/S2665-9913(24)00246-7
Askanase et al. assessed the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of cenerimod in patients with moderate-to-severe SLE. While the primary endpoint of reducing mSLEDAI-2K scores at Month 6 was not achieved, cenerimod 4.0mg showed a significant reduction in disease activity versus placebo. Adverse events, including lymphopenia, were dose-dependent but manageable, and overall treatment was well tolerated.
Mycophenolate mofetil withdrawal in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: A multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial
Lancet Rheumatol 224;6(3):e168–77 DOI 10.1016/S2665-9913(23)00320-X
Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) withdrawal was not significantly inferior to MMF maintenance through Week 60 in patients with SLE that had been treated with MMF for ≥1 year.
Association Between Severe Nonadherence to Hydroxychloroquine and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Flares, Damage, and Mortality in 660 Patients From the SLICC Inception Cohort
Arthritis Rheumatol. 2023; 75(12):2195–2206 DOI: 10.1002/art.42645
n this study, severe nonadherence to hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was independently associated with the risk of SLE flare in the following year, early damage and 5-year mortality.
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Machine Learning Identifies Clusters of Longitudinal Autoantibody Profiles Predictive of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Outcomes
Ann Rheum Dis 2023;82(7):927–36 doi 10.1136/ard-2022-223808
Choi, et al. used machine clustering techniques to divide SLE patients into four distinct clusters. This could potentially be used to predict future clinical outcomes, and as benchmarks to study other SLE-related outcomes.
Baricitinib for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: a Double-blind, Randomised, Placebo-controlled, Phase 3 trial (SLE-BRAVE-II)
Lancet. 2023 doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02546-6
Negative results of SLE-BRAVE-II trial show that evidence for the efficacy of baricitinib in SLE is inconclusive.
Assessing the Costs of Neuropsychiatric Disease in the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) Cohort using Multistate Modelling
Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2023 doi: 10.1002/acr.25090.
First study to assess the long-term economic burden of neurologic and/or psychiatric (NP) lupus in an international, multi-ethnic inception cohort, concludes that patients with new/ongoing SLE or non-SLE NP events incurred higher direct and indirect costs.