By: Rachael Rettner, Senior Writer

Published: 07/24/2013 08:34 PM EDT on LiveScience


A rare condition called Sjögren’s syndrome, which causes severely dry mouth and dry eyes, may stem from the improper function of immune cells called natural killer cells, a new study suggests.


Sjögren's syndrome is an autoimmune disorder, a condition in which the immune system attacks a person's own tissues. In patients with Sjögren's syndrome[1] , the immune system attacks the glands that make tears and saliva. Some patients experience joint pain and fatigue. Tennis star Venus Williams dropped out of the U.S. Open in 2011 because of symptoms of the condition.


Researchers aren't sure what causes people to develop Sjögren's syndrome — which usually shows up for the first time in midlife — but some studies have linked the condition to certain genes.


In the new study, researchers analyzed blood from 38 people with Sjögren's syndrome and 30 healthy people without the condition.


They found that natural killer cells[2] were more active in patients with Sjögren's syndrome. In addition, natural killer cells from Sjögren's syndrome patients had more receptors, called NKp30 receptors, on their surface. These receptors help natural killer cells interact with other cells, and trigger an immune response. While such an immune response[3] is necessary to fight infections, it is harmful if directed at a person's own tissues.


What's more, healthy people had a genetic marker linked with reduced NKp30 levels, which appear to be protective against Sjögren's syndrome.



The NKp30 receptors also bind to a small molecule that is produced on the surface of salivary-gland cells when the cells are stressed by things like inflammation or infection. This interaction may play a role in the persistence of the disease, the researchers said.


The findings suggest that a drug that blocks NKp30 receptors could be a possible treatment for the disease.


There is no cure for the condition, and currently, treatments are geared towards relieving symptoms. Treatments can include over-the-counter or prescription medications for dry eyes and mouth, and drinking water more frequently, according to the Mayo Clinic. Anti-inflammatory drugs can be taken to treat the pain, and drugs that suppress the immune system may also help with whole-body symptoms, the Mayo Clinic says.


The new study, conducted by researchers at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in France, is published in the July 24 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine.


Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner [4] . FollowLiveScience @livescience [5] , Facebook [6] &Google+ [7] . Original article on LiveScience.com[8] .



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  • Patrick Swayze


    The beloved star of "Ghost" and "Dirty Dancing" died after a battle with pancreatic cancer in September 2009, at the age of 57.

    "Now, a lot of things go through your head when you get a death sentence handed to you, starting with: 'Why me?'" he said in an audiobook titled <a href="http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20290371_20308571,00.html" target="_hplink">"Time of My Life," People.com reported</a>. And though he blamed himself at first for the January 2008 diagnosis, he soon emerged with a new attitude.

    "I was not ready to go, and I'd be damned if this disease was going to take me before I was good and ready," <a href="http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20290371_20308571,00.html" target="_hplink">he said in the tapes</a>. "So I said to my doctor, 'Show me where the enemy is and I'll fight him.'"

    In fact, he told Barbara Walters in 2009 that he was both optimistic and realistic.

    "I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking," he said in the interview, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/14/patrick-swayze-dead_n_286559.html" target="_hplink">according to a HuffPost report at the time of his death</a>. "Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it."

    In February 2009 <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020602850.html" target="_hplink">he wrote an op-ed for <em>The Washington Post</em></a> as a plea to Congress to "vote for the maximum funding to let the National Institutes of Health fight cancer and other life threatening illnesses" as part of the stimulus package:

    <blockquote>When I was growing up in Texas, my family had a simple response for challenges like this: "Stop talking about it, and <em>do</em> something about it." That's how I feel about finding more money for cancer research. My hope is that some day, the words "a cure" won't be followed by the words "is impossible."</blockquote>

    He died 20 months after diagnosis. His wife, Lisa Niemi, has stayed active in raising awareness around pancreatic cancer, <a href="http://www.pancan.org/section_about/national_spokesperson/" target="_hplink">signing on as a national spokesperson for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network</a>.

    "My husband Patrick not only touched the lives of millions with his work, but also with the strength and courage he displayed during his fight against pancreatic cancer; he was a hero around the world," <a href="http://www.pancan.org/section_about/national_spokesperson/" target="_hplink">she said when announcing a new awareness campaign for the organization</a>. "While it is bittersweet to mark this day, it is imperative that people understand the severity of this disease and the urgent need for increased research funding,"




  • Randy Pausch


    A <a href="http://www.thelastlecture.com/aboutr.htm" target="_hplink">professor of Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction and Design</a> at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pausch delivered his last lecture in September 2007 after learning he was dying of pancreatic cancer. Soon, the speech, titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," became a viral sensation, with a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Lecture-Randy-Pausch/dp/1401323251
    http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Lecture-Randy-Pausch/dp/1401323251
    http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Lecture-Randy-Pausch/dp/1401323251
    http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Lecture-Randy-Pausch/dp/1401323251" target="_hplink">follow-up book released</a>, as well. "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand," he said during the lecture, which he later explained was <em>really</em> for his three kids. (Watch the full video to the left).

    He died 11 months later on July 25, 2008 -- <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/26/randy-pausch-last-lecture_n_115137.html" target="_hplink">five months past the six months his doctors</a> once (optimistically) gave him to live.




  • Steve Jobs


    The founder and CEO of Apple may be the most public face of pancreatic cancer in the United States, having battled the disease for an estimated seven years before succumbing to it at the age of 56.

    For the rare form of pancreatic tumor that Jobs suffered from, a neuroendocrine pancreatic tumor, his survival was not unusual.

    Jobs was famously tight-lipped about the condition and his treatment protocol, though he did get a liver transplant in 2009, following surgery in 2004 to remove the tumor from his pancreas. As the<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203476804576613722391627248.html" target="_hplink"> <em>Wall Street Journal</em> reported</a> at the time of Jobs' death, patients usually undergo tumor removal either if the cancer is contained to the pancreas and has not spread -- or if it has spread to the liver.

    "If you think it is confined to the pancreas, there is quite a good hope that the patient has gotten rid of it once and for all," Michaela Banck, a pancreatic cancer expert at the Mayo Clinic told the <em>Journal</em>, adding that in cases where it has spread to the liver, "you can't ultimately cure it. The more tumor you remove, you buy time for the patient."

    Though Jobs rarely spoke of his illness, he shared his thoughts on death with some frequency, including during a 2005 Stanford <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/steve-jobs-death-20-best-quotes/story?id=14681795#5" target="_hplink">commencement speech</a>:

    <blockquote>No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.</blockquote>




  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg


    In truth, it may have been Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's 1999 brush with colon cancer that saved her. Because she is a cancer survivor, Ginsburg gets routine CT scans as part of her yearly examinations. And in 2009, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/health/08brod.html" target="_hplink">one of these scans turned up a small tumor on her pancreas</a>.

    Unlike most pancreatic cancer patients, Ginsburg was lucky to find the cancer early and, as of this writing, remains cancer free following surgery to remove her spleen and part of her pancreas in 2009.

    <em>CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this slideshow, Ginsburg was described as "chief justice." She is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.</em>




  • Luciano Pavarotti


    In July 2006, Pavarotti's manager announced that the famous opera singer had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent surgery for the removal of a malignant mass, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/07/AR2006070700319.html" target="_hplink">the <em>Washington Post</em> reported at the time</a>.

    "Fortunately, the mass was able to be completely removed at surgery," the manager said in a statement, according to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/07/AR2006070700319.html" target="_hplink">the <em>Post</em> report</a>. "Mr. Pavarotti is recovering well, and his physicians are encouraged by the physical and emotional resilience of their patient."

    He eventually died in his Northern Italy home in September 2007, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/arts/music/06pavarotti.html?pagewanted=all" target="_hplink"><em>The New York Times</em> reported</a>.




  • Jack Benny


    The violin player and vaudeville, radio, TV and movie star Jack Benny (pictured here with Marilyn Monroe) died from pancreatic cancer on December 26, 1974, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000912/bio" target="_hplink">according to IMDB.com</a>.




  • Donna Reed


    The actress first gained prominence for her award-winning role in <em>From Here to Eternity</em>, though she was perhaps better known for her television roles in "The Donna Reed Show" and "Dallas."

    Reed was <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1986-01-14/news/mn-27829_1_donna-reed" target="_hplink">first admitted to the hospital</a> with bleeding ulcers, but screening tests revealed that she was suffering from a tumor in her pancreas. She died of the cancer within six weeks of diagnosis.




  • Charlie Louvin


    The country music star <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2011-01-26/entertainment/obit.louvin_1_charlie-louvin-great-atomic-power-ira?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ" target="_hplink">died in January 2011 of pancreatic cancer</a> at the age of 83. Louvin, a Grammy nominee and Country Music Hall of Famer, was diagnosed with stage 2 of the disease in 2010 after visiting his doctor with, <a href="http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/2010/07/07/happy-birthday-charlie-louvin/" target="_hplink">what <em>The Tennessean</em> reported was a "minor complaint."</a>

    He performed all the way up until the December before his death -- at one of those last appearances, <a href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20460856,00.html" target="_hplink">People.com reported that he said</a>: "In my world, you are worthless if you can't continue. Show business is all I really know how to do. I would like for that to be the last thing I do."




  • Ben Gazzara


    Gazzara, a long-time dramatic actor, died in early 2012 from pancreatic cancer, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/movies/ben-gazzara-actor-of-stage-and-screen-dies-at-81.html" target="_hplink"><em>The New York Times</em> reported at the time</a>.




  • Dizzie Gillespie


    <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123128087267758759.html" target="_hplink">According to friend Nat Hentoff</a>, as the jazz great Dizzie Gillespie lay dying of pancreatic cancer at New Jersey's Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, he made his doctors promise to help ailing musicians who were less fortunate than he was.

    That turned into the Dizzy Gillespie Memorial Fund and the Dizzy Gillespie Cancer Institute at Englewood -- an ongoing legacy that doesn't just help those with pancreatic cancer, but any musician who lacks health insurance or resources to help treat an illness.




  • Fred Gwynne


    The actor probably best known as the patriarch on the 1960s television series "The Munsters," Gwynne died from pancreatic cancer at age 66, <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1993-07-03/news/mn-9469_1_fred-gwynne" target="_hplink">the <em>Los Angeles Times</em> reported at the time</a>. While his other roles included the television series "Car 54 Where Are You" and the play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," he always had a soft spot in his heart for Herman.

    "And I might as well tell you the truth. I love old Herman Munster. Much as I try not to, I can't stop liking that fellow," <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1993-07-03/news/mn-9469_1_fred-gwynne" target="_hplink">the <em>LA Times</em> quotes him as saying</a>.

    Gwynne acted for 42 years, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/03/obituaries/fred-gwynne-popular-actor-is-dead-at-66.html" target="_hplink">according to <em>The New York Times</em></a>, and also once worked as both a writer and illustrator of children's books and as an advertising copywriter.




  • Joan Crawford


    Movie star Joan Crawford <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/06/health/conditions/pancreatic-cancer-steve-jobs/index.html" target="_hplink">suffered from pancreatic cancer</a> at the time of her death at age 72 in 1977, though the actual cause of death was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0323.html">listed as a heart attack</a>.




  • Michael Landon


    Landon was famous for his roles in period Western dramas, like" "Bonanza" and "Little House on the Prairie," but the actor was also well-known for his battle with pancreatic cancer.

    In an interview with <em>LIFE</em> magazine three weeks after diagnosis, <a href="http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20115519,00.html" target="_hplink">he famously said</a>: "If I'm gonna die, death's gonna have to do a lot of fighting to get me."

    Despite chemotherapy, rest, an all-vegetarian diet and a course of vitamins and supplements, Landon died of the cancer at age 54 at his house in Malibu.




  • Count Basie


    William "Count" Basie was a famous bandleader and jazz musician who is considered responsible for much of the "Big Band" sound of the 1930s and 1940s.

    <a href="http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/count-basie/" target="_hplink">He died of pancreatic cancer</a> in 1984 at the age of 79.