This salt-and-pepper appearance is characteristic of scleroderma.
A yearlong pilot study that evaluated the safety and efficacy of belimumab in a small group of patients with early diffuse systemic sclerosis found no significant difference in the number of adverse events between those treated with the drug and those who received a placebo.
Currently, no drugs are approved specifically for the treatment of systemic sclerosis—also called scleroderma, says Jessica Gordon, MD, MSc, assistant attending physician for the Department of Rheumatology at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City and first author of the study published recently in Arthritis & Rheumatology. A human monoclonal antibody that inhibits B cell activating factor, belimumab (Benlysta)—an FDA-approved treatment for lupus—was chosen as a candidate for the pilot study because of the important role B cells play in the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis.
“There are similarities between scleroderma and lupus, including a significant role for B cells, so in this trial we investigated whether we could reappropriate a treatment that was already approved for lupus,” explains Dr. Gordon.