SGH to Lead $5.8m Research Project to Combat Deadly Autoimmune Disease

Its aim is to better diagnose and treat condition more fatal to Asian patients

- Lee Li Ying

A team of researchers led by the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is embarking on a five-year-long $5.77 million research project to better diagnose and treat systemic sclerosis—a life-threatening autoimmune disease which has largely unknown underlying causes.

To do so, researchers aim to develop a predictive algorithm that can better detect those at risk of worse outcomes, and validate an imaging technique that can sift out earlier those whose condition is set to deteriorate.

Systemic sclerosis, or scleroderma, afflicts about eight out of 100,000 people in Asian populations.

In Singapore, it is estimated that around 500 to 600 patients are living with the condition at any one point in time. Some 10 to 15 patients are newly diagnosed every year.

The exact cause of the disease is not fully understood, but it is believed to be a combination of genetic and environmental factors. For example, a viral infection can trigger individuals with a genetic disposition to develop the rare disease.

The condition causes the body's immune system to mistakenly target and attack its healthy tissues and cells. This can result in thickening and hardening of the skin, lungs and other internal organs.

The research project, funded by an A*Star grant, was announced at SGH in a media briefing on May 22.

Known as the Singapore Systemic Sclerosis Precision Medicine Project, or Sysmic, it brings together clinician scientists, laboratory and big-data scientists and imaging specialists to analyze data derived from patients' genes and immune system.