In Sjögren’s syndrome, autoimmunity targets salivary and lacrimal glands resulting in severe dry eyes and mouth. Some patients have disease involving joints, lungs, peripheral nerves, skin, brain, kidney and white blood cells. We study human Sjögren’s syndrome through the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation Sjögren’s Syndrome Research Clinic. We purify antibody secreting cells from salivary glands of patients, and study how these cells and the antibodies cause disease. We are studying mitochondria dysfunction in Sjögren’s and how this may relate to clinical outcomes like fatigue and metabolic syndrome as well as salivary autoantibodies.
Lupus can affect any body tissue or organ, common manifestations involve the skin, joints and kidneys. The disease is found in women about 10 times more often than in men. About 1 in 500 men has an extra X chromosome (47,XXY), and 1 in 1000 women also has an extra X (47,XXX). We have found that 47,XXY men and 47,XXX women are more common among lupus and Sjögren’s syndrome than expected with 47,XXY men having lupus at the same rate as women. On the basis of these findings, we have proposed that the sex bias of these diseases is related to the number of X chromosomes. Our present research is directed at uncovering the molecular basis of the X chromosome dose effect especially as related to TLR7 and CXorf21, whose genes lie on the X chromosome.
We are study autoimmunity in PTSD, in which lupus, RA, multiple sclerosis and autoimmune thyroid disease are increased several fold. Our studies focus on autoantibodies and B cell hyperactivity.
