Immunological Approaches in the Treatment of Diabetic Nephropathy.

Diabetic nephropathy (DN), the leading cause of end-stage renal disease, has no definite treatment so far. In fact, a combination of metabolic, hemodynamic, and immunological factors are involved in the pathogenesis of DN; therefore, effective disease management requires a holistic approach to all predisposing contributors. Due to the recent findings about the role of inflammation in the initiation and progression of kidney injury in diabetic patients and considerable advances in immunotherapy methods, it might be useful to revise and reconsider the current knowledge of the potential of immunomodulation in preventing and attenuating DN.

Expression of Programmed Cell Death 1 and Helios Genes Correlates With rs872071A>G and rs12203592C>T Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms of InterferonRegulatory Factor 4 in Patients with T-Cell-Mediated Rejection of Renal Allograft.

Objectives: Acute T-cell-mediated rejection of the renal allograft is a serious posttransplant challenge that requires administration of high-dose immunosuppressive drugs with considerable side effects; therefore, specific targeting of T-cell responses may improve both prevention and treatment of T-cell-mediated rejection. A potential candidate for this purpose is interferon regulatory factor 4 because of its implication in differentiation and function of T cells. Our aim was to evaluate the frequency of the rs872071A>G and rs12203592C>T single-nucleotide polymorphisms of the interferon regulatory factor 4 gene and association of these 2 polymorphisms with the gene expression of programmed cell death 1 and Helios in patients with T-cell-mediated rejection versus stable recipients.

Comparing IRF-4 Gene Expression Between Acute T cell- Mediated Rejection and Stable Renal Transplant Recipients.

Introduction: Renal transplant rejection is one of the clinical challenges, which usually requires administration of immunosuppressive drugs causing serious side effects. Therefore, invention of effective and specific therapeutics is necessary to control undesired immune responses particularly T-cell reactions to allograft. Interferon Regulatory Factor-4 (IRF-4) due to its implication on T cells differentiation and function might be targeted to treat T cell-mediated cellular rejection (TCMR).

Investigating the Role of BAFF and Its Receptors in Renal Transplant Recipients with Chronic Antibody-Mediated Rejection.

Background: Kidney transplantation is the best treatment option for end stage renal disease (ESRD), but graft rejection is still a big obstacle that occurs in spite of immunosuppressive therapy. B cells are considered as the major reason for renal graft rejection because of antibody production. Due to their roles in B cell function, we intended to evaluate the B cell activating factor (BAFF) and its receptors including BAFF receptor (BAFF-R), B cell maturation antigen (BCMA), and transmembrane activator and cyclophilin ligand interactor (TACI) in renal transplant patients.

TLR-2, TLR-4 and MyD88 genes expression in renal transplant acute and chronic rejections.

Background: Graft rejection due to alloreactivity is still the main obstacle to successful renal transplantation. Toll-like receptors (TLRs), which are significantly involved in initiating inflammation, triggering innate immunity, occurrence of ischaemia reperfusion injury (IRI) and subsequent deterioration of allograft function, are of interest in molecular diagnosis of graft rejection.

Methods: In present research, we have evaluated the mRNA expressions of TLR-4, TLR-2 and myeloid differentiation primary response gene 88 (MyD88) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and biopsy samples of 26 stable graft function (SGF), 14 acute T-cell-mediated rejection (ACMR), six acute antibody-mediated rejection (AAMR), 10 chronic T-cell-mediated rejection (CCMR) and four chronic antibody-mediated rejection (CAMR) cases of renal transplant recipients, using TaqMan detector real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).