Sustained remission in lupus nephritis: still a hard road ahead

Abstract

End-stage renal disease caused by lupus nephritis (LN) is an avoidable outcome yet there is considerable uncertainty and variability among nephrologists in their approaches to this disorder. This review discusses recent evidence relevant to the management of LN including recent consensus statements. Long-term results are encouraging compared with 30 years ago, but despite the use of the best available current therapies and achieving high levels of early clinical responses, the kidney often sustains long-term damage and nephritis relapses affect over 50%. Major hurdles to management include the complexity of the clinical presentation, histological features and serological tests, and the absence of reliable outcome predictors or markers of treatment response. The key serological and histopathological characteristics relevant to the practising nephrologist are reviewed, and the limitations of current disease activity markers discussed. There are many potential biomarkers under evaluation, and a framework for their validation is presented. Clinical trials of existing or newer agents for LN have typically been inconclusive and have raised problems of trial design and interpretation that are a barrier to new drug development. The major issues affecting clinical trial design and their potential solutions are summarized.