Let’s be clear up front: this will not cure lupus.

However, it will interrupt the pathology of lupus in such a way as to, as the title says, restore immune regulation—so that your body stops attacking itself, or at the very least, attacks itself significantly less.

What is gluconolactone anyway?

Gluconolactone (also called glucono-δ-lactone) an oxidized derivative of glucose, when glucose is exposed to oxygen and a certain enzyme (glucose oxidase). It’s used in various food-related fermentation processes, and also helps such foods to have a tangy flavor.

It’s also known as E575, showing that E-numbers need not always be scary 🙂

How does it work?

First, a recap on how lupus works: lupus is an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks its own tissues, causing inflammation and organ damage (to oversimplify it in very few words).

Next, how lupus is currently treated: mostly with immunosuppressant drugs, which reduce symptoms but have significant side effects, not least of all the fact that your immune system will be suppressed, leaving you vulnerable to infections, cancer, aging, and the like. So, there’s really a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” aspect here (because untreated lupus will run your immune system into the ground with its chronic inflammation, which will also leave you vulnerable to the aforementioned things).

See also: How to Prevent (or Reduce) Inflammation

Now, how gluconolactone works: it increases the number of regulatory T-cells (also called “Tregs” by scientists who don’t want to have to say/write “regulatory T-cells” many times per day), which are the ones that tell the rest of your immune system what not to attack. It also inhibits pro-inflammatory T-helper-cells that are otherwise involved in autoimmune dysfunction.

Where is the science for this?

It’s a shiny new paper that covers three angles:

• In lupus-suffering mouse in vivo studies, it improved Treg function and reduced inflammatory skin rashes
• In human cell culture in vitro studies (with cell cultures from human lupus patients), it bolstered Treg count and improved immune regulation
• In human patient in vivo studies, a gluconolactone cream controlled skin inflammation and improved the clinical and histologic appearance of the skin lesions within 2 weeks

❝These results suggest that gluconolactone could be a targeted treatment option with fewer side effects for autoimmune diseases such as lupus.

Gluconolactone acts like a ‘power food’ for regulatory T cells—a real win-win situation for immune regulation❞

~ Dr. Antonios Kolios

You can find the paper itself here:

Gluconolactone restores immune regulation and alleviates skin inflammation in lupus-prone mice and in patients with cutaneous lupus

Where can I get gluconolactone?

At the moment, this is still in the clinical trials phase, so it’s not something you can get a prescription for yet, alas.

But definitely keep an eye out for it!

We would hypothesize that eating foods fermented with E575 (it’s sometimes used in feta cheese, hence today’s featured image, and it’s also often used as a pickling agent) may well help, but that’s just our hypothesis as it isn’t what was tested in the above studies.

Want to learn more?

In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about lupus, we recommend this very comprehensive book:

The Lupus Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Guide For Patients & Healthcare Providers – by Dr. Donald Thomas et al.*

*The “et al.” are: Jemima Albayda, MD; Divya Angra, MD; Alan N. Baer, MD; Sasha Bernatsky, MD, PhD; George Bertsias, MD, PhD; Ashira D. Blazer, MD; Ian Bruce, MD; Jill Buyon, MD; Yashaar Chaichian, MD; Maria Chou, MD; Sharon Christie, Esq; Angelique N. Collamer, MD; Ashté Collins, MD; Caitlin O. Cruz, MD; Mark M. Cruz, MD; Dana DiRenzo, MD; Jess D. Edison, MD; Titilola Falasinnu, PhD; Andrea Fava, MD; Cheri Frey, MD; Neda F. Gould, PhD; Nishant Gupta, MD; Sarthak Gupta, MD; Sarfaraz Hasni, MD; David Hunt, MD; Mariana J. Kaplan, MD; Alfred Kim, MD; Deborah Lyu Kim, DO; Rukmini Konatalapalli, MD; Fotios Koumpouras, MD; Vasileios C. Kyttaris, MD; Jerik Leung, MPH; Hector A. Medina, MD; Timothy Niewold, MD; Julie Nusbaum, MD; Ginette Okoye, MD; Sarah L. Patterson, MD; Ziv Paz, MD; Darryn Potosky, MD; Rachel C. Robbins, MD; Neha S. Shah, MD; Matthew A. Sherman, MD; Yevgeniy Sheyn, MD; Julia F. Simard, ScD; Jonathan Solomon, MD; Rodger Stitt, MD; George Stojan, MD; Sangeeta Sule, MD; Barbara Taylor, CPPM, CRHC; George Tsokos, MD; Ian Ward, MD; Emma Weeding, MD; Arthur Weinstein, MD; Sean A. Whelton, MD

The reason we mention this is to render it clear that this isn’t one man’s opinions (as happens with many books about certain topics), but rather, a panel of that many doctors all agreeing that this is correct and good, evidence-based, up-to-date (as of the publication of this latest revised edition) information.

Take care!