Editorial: New biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract

Editorial on the Research TopicNew biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease of unknown etiology that primarily affects females of child-bearing age with various morbidities (1). Mortality of SLE still exceeds 10% over 5 years (2, 3). While current treatments are partially effective, they carry significant side effects (4), with infections due to toxicity of immunosuppressant medications being a major cause of death (5,6). This includes belimumab, the 1 st drug approved by the FDA for SLE treatment in 56 years (7), and more recently anifrolumab, both of which also predispose to infections (8). Therefore, a significant unmet need exists to identify biomarkers that can be targeted for safe and effective therapeutic intervention in SLE. A research topic centered around new biomarkers for the Diagnosis and Treatment of SLE included 15 publications with a wide range of focus and experimental design. This Editorial addresses the challenges of integrating a series of newly reported single biomarkers, composite biomarkers based multi-omics approaches, and biomarkers based on machine learning with the complex systems biology of SLE. These newly reported biomarkers are shown in Table 1. S100 calcium-binding protein A8 protein (S100A8) levels as biomarkers for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were quantified in serum, urine, and saliva samples from 249 patients with SLE and 52 age-and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs) and a receiver operating characteristic curve was used to analyze whether they may be used as biomarkers for diagnosis and prediction of flares (17). For SLE diagnosis, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was 0.831 for serum S100A8 (95% CI, 0.765-0.897),Frontiers in Immunology frontiersin.org 01

Lupus Nephritis: A Literature Review

“…This autoimmune disease represents an abnormal interaction between innate and adaptive immunity, triggering the formation of autoantibodies, and immunological disturbances that will impact various organ systems, including the kidneys (Yap & Chan, 2019). The formation of autoantibodies and autoreactivity is mediated by B cells of the adaptive immune system, T cells, and IFN-producing dendritic cells (Perl et al, 2022). B cells and T cells play crucial immunological roles related to the pathogenesis of SLE and LN, such as autoantigen presentation and proinflammatory cytokine secretion, resulting in the production of autoantibodies and sustaining the disease through the accumulation of autoreactive memory T cells (Suarez et al, 2016).…”