Edited by : Joe Hing Kwok Chu

German scientists discovered that the enzyme, DNAse i plays an important role in preventing lupus.

Lupus is an disorder that causes body's own defense to attack itself. Lupus can be classified into cutaneous and systemic types.

Systemic lupus is also called SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus). It is an autoimmune dysfunction. Patients with lupus produce antibodies to their own body tissues and the resulting inflammation damages kidneys, and causes arthritis, pericarditis and vasculitis.

Many subtle genetic abnormalities contribute to the development of lupus. One of the many factors is a change that disrupts the body's waste disposal mechanism in the cells. Specially bred mice for research that had their gene  that encodes DNAse i turned off, appeared healthy at birth but after six to eight months, 73 percent of them showed symptoms of lupus.

DNAse i is an enzyme that cleans out the garbage DNA and other cellular leftovers and dying cells.

Lupus patients often have low levels of DNAse i. It is not sure if supplementing the enzyme might help because the DNase i deficiency is only one of the factors in lupus disorder.

Source: Nature Genetics, June 2000

Note:  study by the groups of Tarik Möröy (of the Institut für Zellbiologie, Essen) and Hans-Georg Mannherz (of the Institut für Anatomie und Embryologie, Bochum) provides the first direct evidence that deficient DNase1 function leads to lupus.

Certain qigong with herb supplements is an effective therapy for lupus.