Renal and Peripheral Blood Transcriptome Signatures That Predict Treatment Response in Proliferative Lupus Nephritis-A Prospective Study.

Mechanisms contributing to non-response to treatment in lupus nephritis (LN) are unclear. We characterised the transcriptome of paired peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and renal tissues in LN before and after cyclophosphamide (CYC) treatment and identified markers that predicted treatment response. Total RNA isolated from paired PBMCs (n = 32) and renal tissues (n = 25) of 16 proliferative LN before CYC treatment, 6 months post-treatment, and during renal flare, was sequenced on Illumina Novaseq-6000 platform.

Findings on serial thigh MRI can identify individuals with inflammatory myositis who recover sub-optimally: A 6-month follow-up study.

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the thigh is used in diagnosis of idiopathic inflammatory myositis (IIM) diagnosis due to its high sensitivity in detecting muscle oedema and to localize the site for muscle biopsy. At the same time, dual energy absorptiometry (DXA) is an accepted method in clinical practice to measure muscle mass and change in body composition. In this longitudinal study of patients with active IIM we sought to correlate muscle findings on serial thigh MRI and body composition assessed using DXA with six-month clinical outcomes, we also studied correlation of thigh MRI scores with body composition parameters.

Functional characterization of complete and immunodominant epitopes of a novel pollen allergen from Parthenium hysterophorus.

Parthenium hysterophorus pollen induces chronic clinical conditions such as allergic rhinitis and bronchial asthma. Among the plethora of proteins in the pollens, only few were reported to induce allergy. Currently sensitization to P.

Type I interferon gene expression signature as a marker to predict response to cyclophosphamide based treatment in proliferative lupus nephritis.

Objectives: To assess the longitudinal effect of cyclophosphamide (CYC) treatment on type-I interferon (IFN) signature in proliferative lupus nephritis (LN) and its role in predicting treatment response.

Methods: Fifty-four biopsy proven proliferative LN patients scheduled to receive high-dose (HD) or low-dose (LD) CYC were recruited and followed up for six months. At six months, patients were classified as clinical responders (CR) or non-responders (NR) to treatment, using the EULAR/EDTA criteria.

Rheumatoid arthritis autologous synovial fluid affects the plasticity and function of peripheral and induced T regulatory cells in vitro.

The synovial fluid (SF) microenvironment in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may alter the stability and function of Tregs. In the present study, we assessed cytokine levels and percentage of Tregs, Tregs expressing CXCR3 (Th1-like Treg), CCR6 (Th17-like Treg) in RA peripheral blood (PB) and RA-SF using fluorescence cytometry. Effect of autologous SF on plasticity and function of RA-PB Tregs (pTregs; CD4CD25CD127) and induced vimentin-pulsed Tregs (iTregs) was assessed in vitro.