Cardiac glycosides: a leap to lupus

A team from Harvard University and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons has found that cardiac glycosides, a diverse family of sodium pump blockers that are used to treat heart failure and atrial arrhythmia,¹ are also able to inhibit production of interferon-b.² The findings suggest that glycosides could be repurposed to treat inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, including lupus, that are characterized by aberrant production of interferons.

In an effort to develop compounds to treat inflammatory and autoimmune diseases caused by interferon (IFN) overproduction, the researchers set out to gain mechanistic insights into signaling pathways leading to interferon production...