Cutaneous-Lupus

A 2026 review of cutaneous lupus therapeutics, now organised almost entirely around the type I interferon axis — from TLR7/8 and pDCs through IFNAR to TYK2 — alongside the practical foundation of photoprotection, early hydroxychloroquine and smoking cessation. No therapy is yet FDA-approved specifically for CLE, and almost all evidence is borrowed from SLE trials where skin was a secondary endpoint.

WILLOW Cohort A is the first placebo-controlled RCT of a TLR7/8 inhibitor in lupus: the oral agent enpatoran met its primary endpoint with a dose-dependent reduction in cutaneous disease activity (CLASI-A) at 16 weeks, and — the headline — rapidly and reversibly switched off the skin type I interferon signature, pinning TLR7/8 as an upstream driver of cutaneous IFN activation. Steroid-sparing was not demonstrated.