PhD defence M.J. (Javad) Wahadat

Brief summary on the aim of the doctoral thesis:

Childhood-onset SLE is a lifelong, multi-systemic, autoimmune disease characterized by an increased risk of damage and mortality in comparison to its adult onset form. Care for children with SLE can only be optimized if there is sufficient understanding about the pathogenesis of this devastating disease. With the new arrival of various advanced immunobiological techniques in the past two decades, much more knowledge has been gained on factors that play a role in disease pathogenesis. Although there is no doubt regarding the importance of these findings, the scientific community still struggles to translate this knowledge into clinically applicable tools that can assist in diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. In this thesis, we sought to provide an answer to several questions regarding the achievability of specific treat-to-target goals in cSLE and studied the role of type I IFNs in the pathophysiology of this disease. Moreover, we translated important scientific findings into simpler immunobiological tests in order to meet the clinical needs. This chapter puts our findings into perspective with regard to the current literature and discusses some targets for future studies.