Use of SLE blood for drug development projects in GSK

Summary

GSK is a Pharmaceutical company that is working on the discovery and development of new medicines for the treatment of diseases where the immune system (which is our body’s natural defence against infection) mistakenly attacks healthy tissue within the body. One of these is called Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE).

To help us answer questions about the way the immune system goes wrong in SLE, we need to collect blood samples from patients who have this disease. Using the blood, we will try to find changes that are characteristic of the disease (and of the severity
of disease). We will then see if we can reverse these changes in the blood (either partly or fully), or observe other changes, by treating the blood sample with novel medicines that we are developing as possible treatments for SLE.

These experiments will give us vital clues about which medicines are more likey to be developable as treatments, how they may work in patients with different severity of disease, and how they may be combined with other treatments to give the maximum benefit for patients.

Access to fresh blood samples from patients to increase our understanding of possible treatments is vital to help us develop new medicines more quickly, and ultimately to ease the burden of disease for those that suffer from SLE.