Derivatives of Artemisinin in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) a chronic diffuse connective tissue disease caused primarily by abnormal activation of the immune system, which attacks its own tissues. It is the most common in women of reproductive age. The exact cause of SLE is unknown, currently, people thought that the development of SLE may be related to genetics, environment and oestrogen. Exacerbations of SLE can be triggered by sun exposure, use of specific drugs, infections, and oral oestrogen use. Unfortunately, SLE cannot be cured completely and long-term remission can only be achieved after standard treatment. Thus, the priority now is to find effective therapeutic drugs and a systematic treatment plan. Contemporary clinical treatments for therapeutic use are classified as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), anti-malarial drugs, immunosuppressive drugs and corticosteroids. After searching the literature from pubmed and medical innovation of China, I found that the anti-malarial drugs are one of the basic drugs in the treatment of SLE, controlling the rash and reducing photosensitivity, as well as helping to maintain the stability of SLE and reduce the use of glucocorticoids. This paper introduced some newly found curing pathway taking dihydroartemisinin (DHA) and -aminoarteether maleate (SM934) as the drug treatment, which both show a good immunosuppressive activity and low toxicity in mouse experiments to act as an immunosuppressant immunosuppressant mouse experiments used as adjuvant therapy.