"Our study strongly suggests that in some patients bacterial imbalances may be driving lupus and its associated disease flares," says study senior investigator and immunologist Gregg Silverman, MD. "Our results also point to leakages of bacteria from the gut as a possible immune system trigger of the disease, and suggest that the internal gut environment may therefore play a more critical role than genetics in renal flares of this all too often fatal disease," says Silverman, a professor in the departments of Medicine and Pathology at NYU Langone Health. He also suspects that antibodies to R. gnavus provoke a "continuous and unrelenting" immune attack on organs involved in flares.

"Our study strongly suggests that in some patients bacterial imbalances may be driving lupus and its