DMARD therapy of inflammatory rheumatic diseases in end-stage kidney disease.

Background Inflammatory rheumatic diseases regularly require the use of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). The use of DMARDs in patients with end-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD stage 5D) is particularly challenging due to the lack of systematic studies available for this patient population. This narrative review aims to address the aspect of DMARD therapy in CKD 5D.

Recovery of kidney function in acute kidney injury.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is associated with a significant burden of mortality worldwide. Each episode of AKI increases the long-term risk of death, especially if there is no recovery or insufficient renal recovery (i.e.

Calpain inhibition in a transgenic model of calpastatin overexpression facilitates reversal of myocardial hypertrophy.

Aims: It was recently demonstrated that the intracellular signalling phosphatase calcineurin is subject to cleavage by the protease calpain, resulting in a truncated calcineurin fragment that is a strong inductor of myocardial hypertrophy. We now address the question of whether inhibition of calpain function in cardiomyocytes, and thereby prevention of calcineurin truncation, attenuates development of myocardial hypertrophy.

Methods And Results: We generated a transgenic mouse model with conditional cardiac calpastatin overexpression (CAST OE) and compared their cardiac hypertrophic response to angiotensin-II (AngII) with that of non-induced control animals.

Acute Kidney Injury in Autoimmune-Mediated Rheumatic Diseases.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is increasingly affecting hospitalized patients worldwide. Patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases, although primarily impacted by functional impairment and sometimes structural damage to joints, bones, and muscle tissue, may also develop AKI during the course of their disease. This narrative review aimed to summarize potential causes of AKI and the associated disease patterns.

Metabolomics for Distinguishing Cardiovascular Risk in Rheumatoid Arthritis Across Different Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drug Therapies.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) significantly increases the overall risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). In addition to conventional risk factors, the inflammatory activity of the disease itself and medications that promote atherosclerosis contribute to an even greater risk. In this study, we performed metabolomic analysis in RA patients, both on and off disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy, with the aim of identifying new candidates for more sophisticated cardiovascular risk (CVR) assessment.