Weaning of maintenance immunosuppressive therapy in lupus nephritis (WIN-Lupus): results of a multicentre randomised controlled trial.

Objectives: Lupus nephritis (LN) is a frequent complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Severe (proliferative) forms of LN are treated with induction immunosuppressive therapy (IST), followed by maintenance IST, to target remission and avoid relapses. The optimal duration of maintenance IST is unknown.

Graft-versus-host disease-related polymyositis.

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) sometimes mimics autoimmune diseases. We report the case of a 39-year-old patient who presented atypical polymyositis without elevated creatinine phosphokinase, related to a chronic GVHD following interruption of immunosuppressive treatment. Treatment with cyclosporine and corticosteroids resulted in complete and sustained remission of the polymyositis.

Soluble receptor for advanced glycation end products: a new biomarker in diagnosis and prognosis of chronic inflammatory diseases.

The formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) is a result of the non-enzymatic reaction between sugars and free amino groups of proteins. AGEs, through interacting with their specific receptor for AGEs (RAGE), result in activation of pro-inflammatory states and are involved in numerous pathologic situations. The soluble form of RAGE (sRAGE) is able to act as a decoy to avoid interaction of RAGE with its pro-inflammatory ligands (AGEs, HMGB1, S100 proteins).