Our results suggest that severe complement dysregulation and consumption accompany the progress of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD)-associated SP-HUS and genetic variations of complement genes may contribute to the development of this complication in a proportion of the affected patients.

RNA modifications play a fundamental role in cellular function. Pseudouridylation, the most abundant RNA modification, is catalyzed by the H/ACA small ribonucleoprotein (snoRNP) complex that shares four core proteins, dyskerin (DKC1), NOP10, NHP2, and GAR1. Mutations inDKC1,NOP10, orNHP2cause dyskeratosis congenita (DC), a disorder characterized by telomere attrition. Here, we report a phenotype comprising nephrotic syndrome, cataracts, sensorineural deafness, enterocolitis, and early lethality in two pedigrees: males withDKC1p.Glu206Lys and two children with homozygousNOP10p.Thr16Met. Females with heterozygousDKC1p.Glu206Lys developed cataracts and sensorineural deafness, but nephrotic syndrome in only one case of skewed X-inactivation. We found telomere attrition in both pedigrees, but no mucocutaneous abnormalities suggestive of DC. Both mutations fall at the dyskerin–NOP10 binding interface in a region distinct from those implicated in DC, impair the dyskerin–NOP10 interaction, and disrupt the catalytic pseudouridylation site. Accordingly, we found reduced pseudouridine levels in the ribosomal RNA (rRNA) of the patients. Zebrafishdkc1mutants recapitulate the human phenotype and show reduced 18S pseudouridylation, ribosomal dysregulation, and a cell-cycle defect in the absence of telomere attrition. We therefore propose that this human disorder is the consequence of defective snoRNP pseudouridylation and ribosomal dysfunction.

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Background: Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) can stimulate thrombosis, and their degradation is decreased in several autoimmune disorders. It was recently reported that some patients with haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) also fail to degrade NETs and that neutrophils from Shiga toxin-associated HUS are primed to form NETs. Method: We used a well-characterized cohort of 74 thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) patients, with a subset also providing follow-up samples, and 112 age-matched controls to investigate NET degradation and serum nuclease activity in TMA before, during and after treatment. Results: We identified that in the cohort of TMA patients, 50% of patients with Shiga toxin-associated HUS displayed a decreased ability to degrade NETs. NET degradation correlated with serum nuclease activity, but not with autoantibodies against double-stranded DNA, which has been previously observed in some autoimmune disorders. Further, NET degradation negatively correlated with serum creatinine levels, suggesting that kidney function was negatively impacted by the low NET degradation ability. Conclusions: We revealed that decreased NET degradation is a common feature of Shiga toxin-associated HUS and that it is associated with decreased kidney function in these patients. It remains to be clarified whether improving NET degradation would be beneficial for the patient.

Background: Acquired or genetic abnormalities of the complement alternative pathway are the primary cause of C3glomerulopathy(C3G) but may occur in immune-complex-mediated membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (IC-MPGN) as well. Less is known about the presence and role of C4nephritic factor(C4NeF) which may stabilize the classical pathway C3-convertase. Our aim was to examine the presence of C4NeF and its connection with clinical features and with other pathogenic factors. Results: One hunfe IC-MPGN/C3G patients were enrolled in the study. C4NeF activity was determined by hemolytic assay utilizing sensitized sheep erythrocytes. Seventeen patients were positive for C4NeF with lower prevalence of renal impairment and lower C4d level, and higher C3 nephritic factor (C3NeF) prevalence at time of diagnosis compared to C4NeF negative patients. Patients positive for both C3NeF and C4NeF had the lowest C3 levels and highest terminal pathway activation. End-stage renal disease did not develop in any of the C4NeF positive patients during follow-up period. Positivity to other complement autoantibodies (anti-C1q, anti-C3) was also linked to the presence of nephritic factors. Unsupervised, data-driven cluster analysis identified a group of patients with high prevalence of multiple complement autoantibodies, including C4NeF.

Child kidney transplant recipients have neurocognitive function impairments that are associated with markers of socioeconomic status (SES) and factors related to disease severity.

IntroductionIn autoimmune atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS), the complement regulator factor H (FH) is blocked by FH autoantibodies, while 90% of the patients carry a homozygous deletion of its homolog complement FH-related protein 1 (CFHR1). The functional consequence of FH-blockade is widely established; however, the molecular basis of autoantibody binding and the role of CFHR1 deficiency in disease pathogenesis are still unknown. We performed epitope mapping of FH to provide structural insight in the autoantibody recruitment on FH and potentially CFHR1.MethodsEight anti-FH positive aHUS patients were enrolled in this study. With overlapping synthetic FH and CFHR1 peptides, we located the amino acids (aa) involved in binding of acute and convalescence stage autoantibodies. We confirmed the location of the mapped epitopes using recombinant FH domains 19–20 that carried single-aa substitutions at the suspected antibody binding sites in three of our patients. Location of the linear epitopes and the introduced point mutations was visualized using crystal structures of the corresponding domains of FH and CFHR1.ResultsWe identified three linear epitopes on FH (aa1157–1171; aa1177–1191; and aa1207–1226) and one on CFHR1 (aa276–290) that are recognized both in the acute and convalescence stages of aHUS. We observed a similar extent of autoantibody binding to the aHUS-specific epitope aa1177–1191 on FH and aa276–290 on CFHR1, despite seven of our patients being deficient for CFHR1. Epitope mapping with the domain constructs validated the location of the linear epitopes on FH with a distinct autoantibody binding motif within aa1183–1198 in line with published observations.SummaryAccording to the results, the linear epitopes we identified are located close to each other on the crystal structure of FH domains 19–20. This tertiary configuration contains the amino acids reported to be involved in C3b and sialic acid binding on the regulator, which may explain the functional deficiency of FH in the presence of autoantibodies. The data we provide identify the exact structures involved in autoantibody recruitment on FH and confirm the presence of an autoantibody binding epitope on CFHR1.

Background A novel data-driven cluster analysis identified distinct pathogenic patterns in C3-glomerulopathies and immune complex-mediated membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. Our aim was to replicate these observations in an independent cohort and elucidate disease pathophysiology with detailed analysis of functional complement markers. Methods A total of 92 patients with clinical, histological, complement and genetic data were involved in the study, and hierarchical cluster analysis was done by Ward method, where four clusters were generated. Results High levels of sC5b-9 (soluble membrane attack complex), low serum C3 levels and young age at onset (13 years) were characteristic for Cluster 1 with a high prevalence of likely pathogenic variations (LPVs) and C3 nephritic factor, whereas for Cluster 2—which is not reliable because of the small number of cases—strong immunoglobulin G staining, low C3 levels and high prevalence of nephritic syndrome at disease onset were observed. Low plasma sC5b-9 levels, decreased C3 levels and high prevalence of LPV and sclerotic glomeruli were present in Cluster 3, and patients with late onset of the disease (median: 39.5 years) and near-normal C3 levels in Cluster 4. A significant difference was observed in the incidence of end-stage renal disease during follow-up between the different clusters. Patients in Clusters 3–4 had worse renal survival than patients in Clusters 1–2. Conclusions Our results confirm the main findings of the original cluster analysis and indicate that the observed, distinct pathogenic patterns are replicated in our cohort. Further investigations are necessary to analyse the distinct biological and pathogenic processes in these patient groups.