Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

AUTOIMMUNE KIDNEY DISEASE

Nephropathic autoantigens in the spectrum of lupus nephritis

In a collaborative effort, researchers have identified unusual protein deposits of exostosin 1 and exostosin 2 in patients with PLA2R and THSD7A-negative membranous nephropathy, many of whom had systemic lupus erythematosus, lupus nephritis or other forms of autoimmunity. Although serum exostosin antibodies were not detected, the findings suggest that these proteins could define a distinct subtype of membranous nephropathy.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Beck, L. H. Jr et al. M-type phospholipase A2 receptor as target antigen in idiopathic membranous nephropathy. N. Engl. J. Med. 361, 11–21 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Tomas, N. M. et al. Thrombospondin type-1 domain-containing 7A in idiopathic membranous nephropathy. N. Engl. J. Med. 371, 2277–2287 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Beck, L. H. Jr. PLA2R and THSD7A: disparate paths to the same disease? J. Am. Soc. Nephrol. 28, 2579–2589 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Sethi, S. et al. Exostosin 1/exostosin 2-associated membranous nephropathy. J. Am. Soc. Nephrol. 30, 1123–1136 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Anders, H. J., Lichtnekert, J. & Allam, R. Interferon-alpha and -beta in kidney inflammation. Kidney Int. 77, 848–854 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Lech, M. & Anders, H. J. The pathogenesis of lupus nephritis. J. Am. Soc. Nephrol. 24, 1357–1366 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Glassock, R. J. Human idiopathic membranous nephropathy—a mystery solved? N. Engl. J. Med. 361, 81–83 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The author’s work is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (AN372/24-1).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hans-Joachim Anders.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Anders, HJ. Nephropathic autoantigens in the spectrum of lupus nephritis. Nat Rev Nephrol 15, 595–596 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41581-019-0168-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41581-019-0168-x

This article is cited by

  • Lupus nephritis

    • Hans-Joachim Anders
    • Ramesh Saxena
    • Chandra Mohan

    Nature Reviews Disease Primers (2020)

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing