Jenny Higgins, a 27-year-old female, develops achy joints,disrupted bowel activity and skin rashes over the course of 7months. 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 in patientswith SLE? (1 mark)
2) Briefly describe how these autoantibodies contribute tosymptoms of the disease.
3) Patients with SLE often have delayed clearance of apoptoticcells. Explain why this delay may result in an increased risk ofautoreactivity to internal cellular components such as the nucleus.
4) If self-proteins or tissue components in the joints are nottargeted directly in SLE, why do patients develop inflammation ofjoints?
5) Briefly describe a 2 stage (2 different drugs, and why youhave chosen these) anti- inflammatory treatment regime designed toquickly bring inflammation under control, but moving to long termtreatment more readily tolerated by the patient.
