Learn from researchers
The immune system is designed to protect the body against infection. However, an immune response that is too strong can have severe consequences. In people living with lupus, their immune system is hyper-aggressive, working against itself and creating antibodies that attack organs and tissue. In some patients infected with the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the immune system can also react in an extremely chaotic way, resulting in severe inflammation and damage to organs and tissue – much like the damage lupus and other autoimmune disorders can exact on people. There are undeniable parallels between lupus and COVID-19, and we’re hoping that understanding one can better prepare us to understand and treat the other.
Mini-Classes with Shayla Shorter, Ph.D.
Our own Dr. Shayla Shorter, Scientific Program Manager at the Lupus Research Alliance is explaining how research on lupus and on COVID-19 can help understand both diseases in a series of weekly videotaped mini-classes. Click here or on the video below to sit in on the first class posted today:
Posted classes:
Posted Wednesday, May 6
How the Immune System Fights Back
Introduction to the immune system including how it normally works.
Posted Wednesday, May 13
What Happens When the Immune System Overreacts?
Explains autoimmunity (lupus) and immunopathology (severe COVID-19) and the connections between the two.
SOURCE: lupusresearch.org/learnfrom...
LUpus Patients Understanding & Support (LUPUS): lupus-support.org/topic/321...
