scholarly journals Anti-glomerular basement membrane disease in children: a brief overview

Author(s):  
Thomas Dowsett ◽  
Louise Oni

AbstractAnti-glomerular basement membrane disease (Anti-GBM), previously known as Goodpasture syndrome, is an extremely rare cause of rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis and chronic kidney disease stage 5 (CKD5) in children. It is associated with acute pulmonary haemorrhage and it has a poor prognosis. It is classified as an autoimmune, small-vessel vasculitis caused by autoantibody formation against the alpha-3 chain in type IV collagen found in the glomerular basement membrane. Evidence of anti-GBM antibodies in serum or histologically are required for diagnosis. Treatment in children is based on very limited adult data and often involves the use of acute apheresis to rapidly remove circulating factors coupled with intensive immunosuppression such as cyclophosphamide and intravenous corticosteroids. There is also an emerging role for the use of biologic agents such as B cell depletion. The evidence base in children with anti-GBM disease is extremely limited. Multi-centre international collaboration is required to provide insight into this disease, better describe its prognosis and work towards improving outcomes. This review article summarises the key features of this disease in children, highlights treatment options and considers areas of unmet need.

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Winkler ◽  
Emanuel Zitt ◽  
Hannelore Sprenger-Mähr ◽  
Afschin Soleiman ◽  
Manfred Cejna ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Anti-glomerular basement membrane disease (GBM) disease is a rare autoimmune disease causing rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis and pulmonary haemorrhage. Recently, an association between COVID-19 and anti-glomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) disease has been proposed. We report on a patient with recurrence of anti-GBM disease after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Case presentation The 31-year-old woman had a past medical history of anti-GBM disease, first diagnosed 11 years ago, and a first relapse 5 years ago. She was admitted with severe dyspnoea, haemoptysis, pulmonary infiltrates and acute on chronic kidney injury. A SARS-CoV-2 PCR was positive with a high cycle threshold. Anti-GBM autoantibodies were undetectable. A kidney biopsy revealed necrotising crescentic glomerulonephritis with linear deposits of IgG, IgM and C3 along the glomerular basement membrane, confirming a recurrence of anti-GBM disease. She was treated with steroids, plasma exchange and two doses of rituximab. Pulmonary disease resolved, but the patient remained dialysis-dependent. We propose that pulmonary involvement of COVID-19 caused exposure of alveolar basement membranes leading to the production of high avidity autoantibodies by long-lived plasma cells, resulting in severe pulmonary renal syndrome. Conclusion Our case supports the assumption of a possible association between COVID-19 and anti-GBM disease.


2021 ◽  
pp. 292-300
Author(s):  
Saif Al-Chalabi ◽  
Henry H.L. Wu ◽  
Rajkumar Chinnadurai ◽  
Arvind Ponnusamy

Anti-glomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) disease is a rare form of small-vessel vasculitis that typically causes rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis with or without alveolar haemorrhage. Previously, there has only been one reported case of tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) antagonist-induced anti-GBM disease. Here, we describe the first reported case of etanercept-induced anti-GBM disease. A 55-year-old Caucasian man was referred to our tertiary specialist renal centre with a history of painless macroscopic haematuria. The patient has been receiving weekly etanercept injections over the past 12 months for psoriatic arthropathy. The serum immunology panel results highlighted a significantly raised anti-GBM titre (370.1 U). Etanercept was stopped, and the patient was empirically commenced on pulsed methylprednisolone, cyclophosphamide, and plasma exchange. A renal biopsy showed crescentic glomerulonephritis. Few days after admission, he tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and a decision was made to withhold cyclophosphamide. There was further decline in renal function with hyperkalaemia for which he received 2 sessions of haemodialysis. He was restarted on cyclophosphamide upon discharge. The patient was switched to rituximab treatment afterwards as he developed leucopenia 2 weeks following the commencement of cyclophosphamide. The serum creatinine level continued to improve and remained dialysis-independent. In conclusion, with the increased use of etanercept and other TNF-α antagonists, the prescribing clinician must be aware of the rare but life-threatening drug-induced vasculitis. We recommend careful monitoring of renal indices with the use of this class of medications.


Author(s):  
Zhao Cui ◽  
Neil Turner ◽  
Ming-hui Zhao

Antiglomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) disease may present as rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis alone, or in the presence of a secondary pulmonary insult (e.g. smoking or other toxicity, or infection) in combination with lung haemorrhage. Rarely it presents as lung disease alone (with haematuria) or as subacute glomerulonephritis. The major differential diagnoses are small vessel vasculitis, which is a more common cause of pulmonary haemorrhage with rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis, and causes of simultaneous pulmonary and renal failure. For most of these, the lung lesion is not pulmonary haemorrhage. The diagnosis often most quickly, most sensitively, specifically and usefully made by renal biopsy, but immunoassays showing a high titre of anti-GBM antibodies in the setting of severe renal disease are also useful. Borderline and even normal anti-GBM titres are not so specific or reliable in some forms of the disease though.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (11) ◽  
pp. 1826-1832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mårten Segelmark ◽  
Thomas Hellmark

Abstract Most patients with anti-glomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) disease present with rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis with or without pulmonary haemorrhage; however, there are several variants and vigilance is necessary to make a correct diagnosis. Such variants include overlap with anti-neutrophil cytoplasm antibodies-associated vasculitis and membranous nephropathy as well as anti-GBM occurring de novo after renal transplantation. Moreover, patients can present with isolated pulmonary haemorrhage as well as with negative tests for circulating anti-GBM. Virtually all patients with anti-GBM disease have autoantibodies that react with two discrete epitopes on the α3 chain of type IV collagen. Recent evidence suggests that healthy persons have low-affinity natural antibodies reacting with the same epitopes, but most people are protected from developing disease-causing high-affinity autoantibodies by human leukocyte antigen-dependent regulatory T-cells (Tregs). The α3 chain-derived peptides presented by the HLA-DR15 antigen lack the ability to promote the development of such Tregs. The detection of anti-GBM in circulation using the rapid assay test has led to early diagnosis and improved prognosis. However, our present tools to curb the inflammation and to eliminate the assaulting antibodies are insufficient. Only about one-third of all patients survive with functioning native kidneys. More effective therapies need to be developed; agents that inhibit neutrophil recruitment, deplete B cells and cleave immunoglobulin G (IgG) in vivo may become new weapons in the arsenal to combat anti-GBM disease.


Author(s):  
Zhao Cui ◽  
Neil Turner ◽  
Ming-hui Zhao

Cyclophosphamide and plasma exchange are the standard of care in rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis or lung haemorrhage caused by antiglomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) disease, and it is unusual to encounter patients at earlier stages. Steroids are universally used in addition. There is some evidence that plasma exchange may not be a critical part of treatment at an earlier stage. There is no more than anecdotal evidence for other therapies. Slower-onset therapies such as antibodies to B cells are rarely appropriate. If untreated, patients with severe anti-GBM disease will not recover renal function and are at risk of pulmonary haemorrhage. Evidence for the pathogenicity of circulating anti-GBM antibodies provides rationale for removal of circulating antibodies as rapidly as possible, whilst simultaneously inhibiting their synthesis. This was behind the introduction of the combination of plasma exchange with immunosuppressive therapy in mid 1970s, which revolutionized outcomes. Plasmapheresis aims to remove circulating pathogenic antibodies against GBM and possibly other mediators; cyclophosphamide prevents further synthesis of autoantibodies; and steroids act as anti-inflammatory agents to attenuate the glomerular inflammatory response initiated by anti-GBM antibodies. It is clear from experimental models and occasional observations in man that the anti-cell mediated effects of current therapies are important too. Outcomes vary, but in general patient survival is now good, while renal survival remains poor, in many series less than 50% at 1 year. Treatment is toxic and after an early peak in deaths due to pulmonary haemorrhage, secondary infections are the next threat. It may therefore be best not to immunosuppress patients with a very poor renal prognosis who appear to be at low risk of pulmonary haemorrhage. Treatment can usually be curtailed after 3 months without recurrence. ANCA and anti-GBM antibodies occur together in some patients. This is typically an older group which often has features of vasculitis, and the anti-GBM response may often be secondary. Longer treatment as for small vessel vasculitis is usually indicated.


Blood ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 42-43
Author(s):  
Brad S. Kahl ◽  
Anik R. Patel ◽  
Omer Zaidi ◽  
Sonya J. Snedecor ◽  
Anna G. Purdum

ABSTRACT Introduction: Patients with indolent non-Hodgkin lymphomas (iNHL), including follicular lymphoma (FL), have high response to first-line treatment. However, retreatment is often required when relapses occur, and those with multiple relapses represent a patient population with an unmet need for effective treatment. Clinical data for several treatment options exist for the general relapsed and refractory (R/R) population; however, there are relatively fewer data specific to FL patients with ≥2 lines of prior treatment. This work systematically identified the available efficacy data in the double R/R FL population. Methods: The MEDLINE and EMBASE databases were searched through February 10, 2020. Studies were limited to interventional clinical trials of R/R FL patients (or mixed histologies with a predominance of FL) and articles published in English. Studies also must have reported one or more efficacy measures, such as overall response rate (ORR), complete response (CR), duration of response (DoR), time to next treatment (TTNT), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). Potential interventions of interest were lenalidomide ± rituximab (R), duvelisib, ibrutinib, venetoclax, polatuzumab vedotin + R, obinutuzumab, copanlisib, umbralisib, idelalisib, and tazemetostat. Results: Of 35 publications examining treatment outcomes in R/R FL patients, only 14 (representing 5 unique clinical trials) were specific to the ≥ 2-line population. These trials were: CHRONOS Part B (copanlisib), DAWN (ibrutinib), DELTA (idelalisib), DYNAMO (duvelisib), and Morschhauser et al. 2019 (tazemetostat) and included a total of 605 participants. All studies used similar inclusion criteria, and patients included were similar in age (median 62-65), disease stage (III/IV), and ECOG score (0-2). Patients in the CHRONOS study had a median number of prior treatments of 2, whereas those in the DELTA study had 5. ORR ranged from 21% (ibrutinib) to 59% (copanlisib) (Table). The DoR ranged from 8.3 months in tazemetostat patients with EZH2 gene mutation to 19.4 months for ibrutinib. PFS ranged from 5.7 months in tazemetostat patients with wild-type EZH2 to 11.2 months for copanlisib. Median TTNT was only reported in the DAWN study (16 months). Conclusions: Very few clinical data exist reporting efficacy outcomes specific to the double R/R FL population. The limited data indicate that current treatments do not produce durable responses for most double R/R FL patients, demonstrating an unmet need. Further research is needed to fully understand the efficacy and safety of other potential interventions for this population. Disclosures Kahl: Genentech:Consultancy;Pharmacyclics LLC:Consultancy;AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP:Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees;ADC Therapeutics:Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding;Celgene Corporation:Consultancy;AbbVie:Consultancy;Roche Laboratories Inc:Consultancy;BeiGene:Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding;Janssen:Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees;Acerta:Consultancy, Research Funding.Patel:Kite, a Gilead Company:Current Employment.Zaidi:BMS:Consultancy.Snedecor:Pharmerit - an OPEN Health Company:Other: Employment at consultancy paid by Kite Pharma to conduct this work.Purdum:Kite, a Gilead Company:Current Employment.


2010 ◽  
Vol 299 (6) ◽  
pp. F1258-F1269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshitake Hyodo ◽  
Takashi Oda ◽  
Yuichi Kikuchi ◽  
Keishi Higashi ◽  
Taketoshi Kushiyama ◽  
...  

The voltage-gated potassium channel Kv1.3 has been recently identified as a molecular target that allows the selective pharmacological suppression of effector memory T cells (TEM) without affecting the function of naïve T cells (TN) and central memory T cells (TCM). We found that Kv1.3 was expressed on glomeruli and some tubules in rats with anti-glomerular basement membrane glomerulonephritis (anti-GBM GN). A flow cytometry analysis using kidney cells revealed that most of the CD4+ T cells and some of the CD8+ T cells had the TEM phenotype (CD45RC−CD62L−). Double immunofluorescence staining using mononuclear cell suspensions isolated from anti-GBM GN kidney showed that Kv1.3 was expressed on T cells and some macrophages. We therefore investigated whether the Kv1.3 blocker Psora-4 can be used to treat anti-GBM GN. Rats that had been given an injection of rabbit anti-rat GBM antibody were also injected with Psora-4 or the vehicle intraperitoneally. Rats given Psora-4 showed less proteinuria and fewer crescentic glomeruli than rats given the vehicle. These results suggest that TEM and some macrophages expressing Kv1.3 channels play a critical role in the pathogenesis of crescentic GN and that Psora-4 will be useful for the treatment of rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 2050313X1880762
Author(s):  
Claudius Speer ◽  
Matthias Martin Gaida ◽  
Rüdiger Waldherr ◽  
Christian Nusshag ◽  
Florian Kälble ◽  
...  

Membranous nephropathy is a common cause of nephrotic syndrome in adults and can be primary or secondary through autoimmune disease, medication, infection, or malignancy. Rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis with crescent formation is rare in patients with membranous nephropathy. Thus, in cases with rapid decline in renal function, after excluding complications such as malignant hypertension, acute hypersensitivity interstitial nephritis, and bilateral renal vein thrombosis, the simultaneous occurrence of a superimposed glomerulonephritis should be considered. We report a 55-year-old man suffering from a biopsy-confirmed primary membranous nephropathy, who developed rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis with anti-glomerular basement membrane antibodies after being affected with membranous nephropathy for 8 years. The kidney biopsy revealed a concurrence of membranous nephropathy and anti-glomerular basement membrane disease. Clinical presentation and treatment of membranous nephropathy followed by anti-glomerular basement membrane disease are discussed based on our observation with promising follow-up.


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