The lupus-susceptibility gene kallikrein downmodulates antibody-mediated glomerulonephritis

Selective inhibition of BTK prevents murine lupus and antibody-mediated glomerulonephritis.

Autoantibody production and immune complex deposition within the kidney promote renal disease in patients with lupus nephritis. Thus, therapeutics that inhibit these pathways may be efficacious in the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus. Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) is a critical signaling component of both BCR and FcR signaling. We sought to assess the efficacy of inhibiting BTK in the...

Lupus Glomerulonephritis

Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody mediated glomerulonephritis associated with levamisole-adulterated cocaine

Levamisole-adulterated cocaine has increased in prevalence over the last decade and is known to be associated with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA). Dermatologic manifestations of levamisole exposure, including cutaneous vasculitis, are widely appreciated; less is known about its effects on the kidney. We report two cases of patients with a history of cocaine abuse and levamisole-in...

The enigma of cellular immunity in glomerulonephritis: lupus nephritis is not necessarily a prototype of immune complex-mediated glomerulonephritis.

arteritis, and how these diseases related to his work with serum sickness. It was a remarkable review of a life’s work [1] . I went to Boston to Dr. Frank Austen’s lab for my research fellowship and one of the people who was working there was Dr. John David. In the mid-1960s, when I was a fellow, experimental immune diseases of the glomerulus had been studied rather well, particularly by Dr. Fr...

The Lupus Susceptibility Locus