Research Focus

Philosophy & Approach

SJIA is a complex, systemic disease that can effect multiple organs if not under adequate control. The currently used biologic medications provides disease control for some of the patients, many of whom go into remission. A second group patients bounce from biologic to biologic, trying different combination of biologics and other immunosuppressive medications. A third group of patients are completely refractory, remaining under control only with systemic steroids.

The SJIA Foundation is focused on finding better treatments and a cure for all SJIA patients, with a special focus on patients who are refractory to current biologics.

SJIA being a rare disease, there are few medications developed specifically for it. Instead, many of the medications have come from other, more common inflammatory diseases , the current drugs have often come from other inflammatory diseases. As such a good place to look at is other inflammatory diseases for drugs to reposition or repurpose.

The diseases we currently track are

• Rheumatoid Arthritis (being a common disease, attracts a lot of drug development and clinical trials)
• HLH (is a good place to look for drugs for MAS)
• Other Auto-inflammatory diseases such as NLRC4 Mutation, CAPS (because the genetic basis is better understood than SJIA, targeted drug development is more possible)
• Adult Onset Still’s Disease (sometimes drugs are first tested in Still’s Disease since clinical trials with pediatric patients are more complex)

The Next Gen Drugs in SJIA Conference (in October 2017) was the first effort to identify a pipeline of drugs that are in development for SJIA or similar diseases. At the conference, there were talks related to below drugs and cell therapies.

Currently the SJIA drugs and cell therapies we are tracking

• IL18-BP from AB2Bio: FDA just granted it  breakthrough therapy status
• Emapalumab or NI-0501 from Novimmune
• Newer IL6 blockers
• Mesenchymal Stem Cells
• Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
• Jak Inhibitors: Tofacitinib & Baricitinib
• IL17 Blockers: Secukinumab, Brodalumab

SJIA Pipeline: (Coming Soon)

The SJIA Drug Pipeline is the primary way we decide what research we track what basic or translational research we want to focus on. The pipeline identifies the major drug programs in development, and tracks their progress from basic research through clinical trials.

Projects we have supported in the past

2018 – RNA-Seq studies of Refractory SJIA – Cincinnati Childrens Hospital – Alexei Grom & Grant Schulert

2016 – Understanding pathways in lung disease in SJIA – Cincinnati Childrens – Alexei Grom

IL-18 as therapeutic target in a patient with resistant systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis and recurrent macrophage activation syndrome.

Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis-Associated Lung Disease: Characterization and Risk Factors.

2016 – Proteomics Analysis in SJIA-LD – Scott Canna – University of Pittsburgh & NIH – Scott Canna 

Multiplex Serum Analysis Identifies Potential Biomarkers of Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, Macrophage Activation Syndrome, and Associated Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis.

2016 – Understanding Interstitial Lung Disease in SJIA – Stanford University – Betsy Mellins
Emergent high fatality lung disease in systemic juvenile arthritis.

2015 – Consensus Treatment Plan in Systemic JIA
Funded the next phase of Carra’s Consensus Treatment Plan for Systemic JIA patients. Funds will be used to collect clinical data and blood from Systemic JIA patients in an effort to determine which treatments work best to control SJIA symptoms. Principal Investigator: Yukiko Kimura.