The role of online hemodiafiltration with endogenous reinfusion in the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus activity resistant to conventional therapy

TL;DR

This study explores how online hemodiafiltration with endogenous reinfusion (HFR) may help treat severe lupus cases that don't respond to standard therapies by improving disease activity and restoring C1q levels.

Contribution

The study introduces HFR as a potential treatment for SLE patients unresponsive to conventional therapies, showing its impact on C1q levels and disease activity.

Findings

C1q levels were significantly lower in SLE patients compared to healthy controls and non-lupus renal disease patients.

HFR treatment showed potential to ameliorate lupus activity and restore C1q levels in non-responding patients.

C1q demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity in differentiating SLE from other renal diseases and healthy controls.

Abstract

Lupus is a diverse autoimmune disease with autoantibody formation. Lupus nephritis carries a grave prognosis. Complement involvement, namely, C1q deficiency, is linked to activity and renal involvement and could help in their assessment. LN therapies include plasma exchange, immune adsorption, and probably hemodiafiltration with online endogenous reinfusion (HFR), together with traditional immunosuppressive therapies.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of HFR in improving signs and symptoms of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) activity and laboratory parameters in cases not responding to traditional immunosuppressive therapy.

A controlled clinical study was conducted on 60 patients with lupus from Group A that was subdivided into two groups: cases 1 (47 patients), those who received traditional medical treatment, and cases 2 (13 patients), those who underwent HFR in addition to medical treatment. Group B consisted of two subgroups: control 1, composed of 20 healthy age- and sex-matched volunteers, and control 2, consisting of 10 cases with different glomerular diseases other than lupus.

Serum C1q was determined before and after the HFR as well as induction by medical treatment. Disease activity was assessed using SLEDAI-2K with a responder index of 50; quality of life was assessed using SLEQOL v2, and HFR was performed for the non-responder group.

C1q was lower in cases. It can efficiently differentiate between SLE patients and healthy controls with a sensitivity of 81.67% and a specificity of 90%. It can also efficiently differentiate between SLE patients and the control 2 group (non-lupus patients with renal glomerular disease) with a sensitivity of 83.33% and a specificity of 100%. C1q was more consumed in proliferative lupus, and correlated with anti-ds DNA, C3, and C4.

C1q efficiently discriminates lupus patients and correlates with proliferative forms. HFR might ameliorate lupus activity and restore C1q.

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