When prescribing hydroxychloroquine, how do you explain the mechanism of action and how this translates into clinical benefit for the patient?

1. Explaining the mechanism of action of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) when RXing it to a patient:

- Time is limited in clinical practice, and there are SO MANY positive benefits of HCQ that I do not explain the MOA except with the statement:

"HCQ calms down the immune system without actually suppressing t...

Dr. @Dr. First Last,

I appreciate your expansive answer concerning autophagy. There is not much discussion in the rheumatology community with respect to the role of autophagy with SLE clinical manifestation and treatment.

There is literature that belimumab decreases autophagy. And since type 1 inter...

Dr. @Dr. First Last,

We know that the immune system has many pathways, but all components work in tandem. It would be a huge misjudgment to focus on only one aspect (autophagy) of the complex immunopathology of a disease like lupus and try to make sense of how to explain it with exercise and fasting...