"Then in her 60s, Ford had been diagnosed with lupus years earlier. It's a mysterious autoimmune disease that drives inflammation as the body's own immune system fights tissue and organs instead of foreign intruders like viruses and bacteria. Symptoms are a rollercoaster, from hair loss to joint pain that afflicted Ford so badly hat she had to quit the job she loved. Strange rashes also broke out on her legs - then quickly disappeared."
"But this week a team of Stanford Medicine researchers claim they've cracked the code, a development some independent lupus experts described as a "major breakthrough" that could lay the groundwork for a potential cure. In a paper published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Science Translational Medicine, the Stanford researchers said they have connected the dots between lupus and the Epstein-Barr virus, a virus 95% of Americans carry."
Kathleen Ford developed severe joint pain and intermittent rashes after a lupus diagnosis, forcing her to leave nursing. Lupus causes inflammation when the immune system attacks tissues and organs, producing symptoms from hair loss to severe joint pain. About 1.5 million Americans have lupus, roughly 90% are women, and no cure exists; treatments relieve symptoms but can cause osteoporosis, eye damage, or rarely death. Researchers linked lupus to the Epstein-Barr virus, which infects certain white blood cells and can recruit other immune cells to attack the body's own cell command centers. Experts called the finding a major breakthrough that could enable targeted treatments or a potential cure.
Read at The Mercury News
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