After a half-century wait, a new drug has been approved for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus. The success of belimumab could bolster the feasibility of B-cell-targeted approaches to treating the disease.
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Acknowledgements
The author offers sincere apologies to those whose work could not be cited because of space restrictions. This work was supported in part by a grant (U19 AI56390) from the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
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The author has received grant/research support from Biogen and has acted as a consultant for GlaxoSmithKline.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Figure 1
The role of BAFF in B-cell development and the known and predicted impact of its blockade in SLE. (PDF 505 kb)
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Sanz, I. Targeting B cells in SLE: good news at last!. Nat Rev Rheumatol 7, 255–256 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2011.48
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2011.48
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