TF, TFPI and Plasmin as Novel Bio-markers in Early Diagnosis of Lupus Nephritis

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Urinary levels of plasmin ,TF , and TFPI are all elevated in active LN patients compared to inactive LN patients and healthy controls. All four proteins correlated with systemic disease activity and renal disease activity. Importantly, urine plasmin performed best among the four proteins in discriminating active LN from inactive disease, even better than traditional markers, such as anti ds DNA and complement C3. Furthermore, the combination of urine plasmin and TFPI showed higher specificity and negative predictive values than urine plasmin when compared to anti-ds DNA and complement C3

Detailed Description
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Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a systemic autoimmune disease affects various organs, characterized by diverse autoantibodies production,mainly anti-DNA and anti-nuclear antibodies . It demonstrates variations in incidence,prevalence, disease activity and prognosis according to race and ethnicity . Lupus nephritis (LN) is one of the most frequent and severe clinical manifestations of SLE, it affects over 60% of SLE patients representing a leading cause of morbidity and mortality . Early diagnosis and monitoring of the disease flares are still challenging , although of the novel immunosuppressive drugs and biologics, which brought improvements in recent SLE/LN survival rates . The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) guidelines for the treatment of lupus nephritis , recommend change in treatment if response to therapy has not been achieved after 6 months of induction therapy. However, response to therapy is not well defined. In addition, renal damage can occur within 6 months while waiting to define this response. Decision support tools could help define response at the start of induction therapy and have the potential to improve outcomes . Use of laboratory parameters for LN such as creatinine clearance, anti-ds DNA, proteinuria, urine protein-to-creatinine ratio (U-PCR),and complement levels are undesirable. These markers are of less sensitivity and specificity for evolve renal activity and injury in LN.They are not directly correlated with kidney damage, which can arise before kidney function affection. Outbreak of nephritis may occur in any condition in absence and new rise in the level of proteinuria. Kidney biopsy is a gold standard to assess the histological category of LN and the level of activity and chronicity in glomeruli. But, it is an invasive procedure and continual biopsies are inappropriate in the observing and follow up of LN . It may have sampling error because of extent number of glomeruli obtained for LN activity and chronicity. So , many studies are focusing on identifying non-invasive biomarkers for the early diagnosis and follow up of the disease and the therapy response. Urine is easily collected and can reflect the underlying renal affection more accurately than serum. Therefore, urine bio-markers represent promising candidates for the early disease diagnosis and monitoring .Thus, novel urinary bio-markers, which are able to distinguish lupus kidney activity and its extremity, anticipate kidney outbreak, and observe treatment reciprocation and illness breakthrough are clearly obligatory . Urinary bio-markers are more sensitive for lupus nephritis;they can appear in urine before functional derangement . Coagulation system disorders and hyper-coagulability state have been reported in lupus nephritis, also the frequency of thrombotic events was documented to be higher in SLE patients than in the general population, and these events were associated with poor outcome .Both thrombo-genic and thrombolytic cascades appear to be up-regulated in lupus nephritis, with proteins from both cascades appearing in the urine . Urinary levels of plasmin ,TF and TFPI are all elevated in active LN patients compared to inactive LN patients and healthy controls. All four proteins correlated with systemic disease activity and renal disease activity. Importantly, urine plasmin performed best among the four proteins in discriminating active LN from inactive disease, even better than traditional markers, such as anti dsDNA and complement C3. Furthermore, the combination of urine plasmin and TFPI showed higher specificity and negative predictive values than urine plasmin when compared to anti-dsDNA and complement C3.

Official Title
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Urinary Tissue Factor (TF), Tissue Factor Pathway Inhibitor (TFPI) and Plasmin as Bio-markers in Early Diagnosis of Lupus Nephritis

Conditions
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Lupus Nephritis

Intervention / Treatment
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* Diagnostic Test: Urinary tissue factor (TF), tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) and plasmin


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: age >15 years SLE patients fullfiling ACR diagnostic criteria Exclusion Criteria: Renal artery stenosis, congenital renal diseases ,renal tumor,other causes of GN Pregnancy. coagulation disorders DM,HTN and the other connective tissue disease Obesity CKD

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 15 Years
Maximum Age: 60 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| SLE patients without lupus nephritis<br>40 SLE patients 40SLE patients( All SLE pt. satisfied the ACR criteria for SLE diagnosis) these patients will be without any evidences of nephritis | Diagnostic Test: Urinary tissue factor (TF), tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) and plasmin<br>* urinary sample<br>|
| SLE patients with lupus nephritis<br>40SLE patients with evidences of nephritis | Diagnostic Test: Urinary tissue factor (TF), tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) and plasmin<br>* urinary sample<br>|
| healthy control group<br>20 healthy subjects matched age and sex with be enrolled as healthy control group | Diagnostic Test: Urinary tissue factor (TF), tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) and plasmin<br>* urinary sample<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The diagnostic utility of tissue factor ,, tissue factor pathway inhibitor and plasmin as biomarkers for early detection of lupus nephritis (LN) | Urinay sample of 100 subjects (80 with SLE ,40 of them with LN,and 20 are healthy persons)will be collected as a morning sample& using ELISA test to detect the level of these bio-markers in the urine of these subjects | 2023 | 
| the correlation of these bio-markers to the clinical staging , the disease activity index and revised treatment . | correlate the level of the markers with the renal biopsy staging and activity index using (International Society of Nephrology /Renal Pathology Society classification (ISN/RPS), and disease Activity Index (SLEDAI-2K & r SLEDAI)). | 2023 |