New techniques may lead to precision medicine in lupus nephritis
A better developed histopathological classification system for lupus nephritis (LN), as well as an increased understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease, may help make precision medicine a possibility in the treatment of LN, according to an article published in Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation.
Two areas that may help guide precision medicine in the diagnosis of LN include biomarkers and immune profiling
Recent studies have examined whether a panel of urine, serum, tissue, and genetic biomarkers could help with the development of precision medicine in LN by identifying potential patients and potentially active pathways, leading to personalized therapies.
Trials that explore inflammatory pathways may lead to precision medicine in LN by utilizing transcriptome analysis of whole blood or targeted immune cells.
“To fully characterize a disease-relevant small cell subset that is responsible for the transcriptome change, deeper immune phenotyping, probably by mass cytometry or single-cell RNA sequencing in combination with bulk transcriptome analysis, is needed,” the authors wrote.
“Despite these advances, molecular and genetic markers are rarely incorporated into diagnostic and treatment algorithms and true precision medicine remains an aspiration that hopefully can be achieved,” the authors concluded.
Reference
Rosenkranz AR, Tesar V. Lupus nephritis and ANCA-associated vasculitis: towards precision medicine? Nephrol Dial Transplant. 2021;36,Supplement_2):37-43. https://doi.org/10.1093/ndt/gfab166
