New evidence in treating eye dryness in Sjogren's Syndrome

Emerging evidence suggests that B cell and co-stimulatory targeted therapy may be used in the future to treat eye dryness symptoms in Sjogren's Syndrome.

Recent developments in the understanding of SS show that eye dryness is associated with:

• dysfunction of the lacrimal glands
• changes in the tear composition
• abnormalities in chemicals secreted by nerve cells

"There is good evidence for the use of topical artificial tears, antiinflammatories and Cyclosporine, and oral Pilocarpine and Cevimeline in controlling the symptoms of ocular dryness associated with SS." See Reference below.

CONCLUSIONS OF THE RESEARCH:  Conventional DMARDs are not particularly effective in treating the symptoms of dryness in the eyes in Sjogren's Syndrome (SS). These drugs are commonly prescribed for SS. Emerging evidence suggests that B cell and co-stimulatory targeted therapy may play a role in the future.

B cell activation

B cell depletion has been associated with improvement in many (but not all) conditions associated with autoantibody production.

B cell targeted therapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was developed with the objective of removing B cell clones responsible for the production of pathogenic autoantibodies. [1]. This has not been achieved yet but B cell depletion therapy has been found to have a major impact on RA in the short term. 

This post is my attempts to simplify medical research into Sjogren's Syndrome so that people with SS can understand: Here is the REFERENCE: Advances in the treatment of ocular dryness associated with Sjögren׳s syndrome. PubMed June 2015 Ciurtin C, Ostas A, Cojocaru VM, Walsh SB, Isenberg DA.

Find out more about DMARD's: what they are and specific ones.