Jenny Higgins, a 27-year-old female, develops achyjoints, disrupted bowel activity and skin rashes over the course of7 months. Although mild at first, the symptoms get worse over thistime period, and while her GP did not initially suspect anautoimmune disease, Jenny is eventually diagnosed with SystemicLupus Erythematosus (SLE) a classic systemic autoimmune disease.Answer the following sub-questions separately.
1) Name some common autoantibody responses present inpatients with SLE? (1 mark)
2) Briefly describe how these autoantibodies contributeto symptoms of the disease.
3) Patients with SLE often have delayed clearance ofapoptotic cells. Explain why this delay may result in an increasedrisk of autoreactivity to internal cellular components such as thenucleus.
4) If self-proteins or tissue components in the jointsare not targeted directly in SLE, why do patients developinflammation of joints?
5) Briefly describe a 2 stage (2 different drugs, andwhy you have chosen these) anti- inflammatory treatment regimedesigned to quickly bring inflammation under control, but moving tolong term treatment more readily tolerated by the patient.
