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Möckel T, Boegel S, Schwarting A. Transcriptome Analysis of BAFF/BAFF-R System in Murine Nephrotoxic Serum Nephritis. Int J Mol Sci 2024; 25:5415. [PMID: 38791453 PMCID: PMC11121395 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25105415] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2024] [Revised: 05/02/2024] [Accepted: 05/07/2024] [Indexed: 05/26/2024] Open
Abstract
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an emerging cause for morbidity and mortality worldwide. Acute kidney injury (AKI) can transition to CKD and finally to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Targeted treatment is still unavailable. NF-κB signaling is associated with CKD and activated by B cell activating factor (BAFF) via BAFF-R binding. In turn, renal tubular epithelial cells (TECs) are critical for the progression of fibrosis and producing BAFF. Therefore, the direct involvement of the BAFF/BAFF-R system to the pathogenesis of CKD is conceivable. We performed non-accelerated nephrotoxic serum nephritis (NTN) as the CKD model in BAFF KO (B6.129S2-Tnfsf13btm1Msc/J), BAFF-R KO (B6(Cg)-Tnfrsf13ctm1Mass/J) and wildtype (C57BL/6J) mice to analyze the BAFF/BAFF-R system in anti-glomerular basement membrane (GBM) disease using high throughput RNA sequencing. We found that BAFF signaling is directly involved in the upregulation of collagen III as BAFF ko mice showed a reduced expression. However, these effects were not mediated via BAFF-R. We identified several upregulated genes that could explain the effects of BAFF in chronic kidney injury such as Txnip, Gpx3, Igfbp7, Ccn2, Kap, Umod and Ren1. Thus, we conclude that targeted treatment with anti-BAFF drugs such as belimumab may reduce chronic kidney damage. Furthermore, upregulated genes may be useful prognostic CKD biomarkers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tamara Möckel
- Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine I, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, 55131 Mainz, Germany; (T.M.); (S.B.)
| | - Sebastian Boegel
- Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine I, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, 55131 Mainz, Germany; (T.M.); (S.B.)
| | - Andreas Schwarting
- Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine I, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, 55131 Mainz, Germany; (T.M.); (S.B.)
- Center for Rheumatic Disease Rhineland-Palatinate GmbH, 55543 Bad Kreuznach, Germany
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Li Y, Tang C, Vanarsa K, Thai N, Castillo J, Lea GAB, Lee KH, Kim S, Pedroza C, Wu T, Saxena R, Mok CC, Mohan C. Proximity extension assay proteomics and renal single cell transcriptomics uncover novel urinary biomarkers for active lupus nephritis. J Autoimmun 2024; 143:103165. [PMID: 38194790 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaut.2023.103165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2023] [Revised: 12/19/2023] [Accepted: 12/20/2023] [Indexed: 01/11/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To identify urinary biomarkers that can distinguish active renal involvement in Lupus Nephritis (LN), a severe manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). METHODS Urine from 117 subjects, comprised of inactive SLE, active non-renal lupus, active LN, and healthy controls, were subjected to Proximity Extension Assay (PEA) based comprehensive proteomics followed by ELISA validation in an independent, ethnically diverse cohort. Proteomic data is also cross-referenced to renal transcriptomic data to elucidate cellular origins of biomarkers. RESULTS Systems biology analyses revealed progressive activation of cytokine signaling, chemokine activity and coagulation pathways, with worsening renal disease. In addition to validating 30 previously reported biomarkers, this study uncovers several novel candidates. Following ELISA validation in an independent cohort of different ethnicity, the six most discriminatory biomarkers for active LN were urinary ICAM-2, FABP4, FASLG, IGFBP-2, SELE and TNFSF13B/BAFF, with ROC AUC ≥80%, with most correlating strongly with clinical disease activity. Transcriptomic analyses of LN kidneys mapped the likely origin of these proteins to intra-renal myeloid cells (CXCL16, IL-1RT2, TNFSF13B/BAFF), T/NK cells (FASLG), leukocytes (ICAM2) and endothelial cells (SELE). CONCLUSION In addition to confirming the diagnostic potential of urine ALCAM, CD163, MCP1, SELL, ICAM1, VCAM1, NGAL and TWEAK for active LN, this study adds urine ICAM-2, FABP4, FASLG, IGFBP-2, SELE, and TNFSF13B/BAFF as additional markers that warrant systematic validation in larger cross-sectional and longitudinal cohorts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yaxi Li
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Chenling Tang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Kamala Vanarsa
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Nga Thai
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Jessica Castillo
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | | | - Kyung Hyun Lee
- Center for Clinical Research and Evidence-Based Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Soojin Kim
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Claudia Pedroza
- Center for Clinical Research and Evidence-Based Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Tianfu Wu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Ramesh Saxena
- Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Nephrology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
| | - Chi Chiu Mok
- Department of Medicine, Tuen Mun Hospital, New Territories, Hong Kong, China
| | - Chandra Mohan
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
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