19 September 2025
Reason for Lupus
PLD4 protein is an enzyme that normally modulates components of the immune system including Toll-like receptor pathways. Finding a mutation in the PLD4 gene that knocks out its function in a subset of patients with the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus reveals for the first time the importance of PLD4 deficiency in human disease, and points to a target for treatments
Read the published research article here
Written by
- Image from work by Qintao Wang, Honghao Zhu, Xiangwei Sun, Changming Zhang and Shuangyue Ma, and colleagues
- Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
- Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- Published in Nature, September 2025
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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.
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