The Rheumatologist
COVID-19 News
  • Connect with us:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Feed
  • Home
  • Conditions
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis
    • SLE (Lupus)
    • Crystal Arthritis
      • Gout Resource Center
    • Spondyloarthritis
    • Osteoarthritis
    • Soft Tissue Pain
    • Scleroderma
    • Vasculitis
    • Systemic Inflammatory Syndromes
    • Guidelines
  • Resource Centers
    • Axial Spondyloarthritis Resource Center
    • Gout Resource Center
    • Psoriatic Arthritis Resource Center
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis Resource Center
    • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Resource Center
  • Drug Updates
    • Biologics & Biosimilars
    • DMARDs & Immunosuppressives
    • Topical Drugs
    • Analgesics
    • Safety
    • Pharma Co. News
  • Professional Topics
    • Ethics
    • Legal
    • Legislation & Advocacy
    • Career Development
      • Certification
      • Education & Training
    • Awards
    • Profiles
    • President’s Perspective
    • Rheuminations
    • Interprofessional Perspective
  • Practice Management
    • Billing/Coding
    • Quality Assurance/Improvement
    • Workforce
    • Facility
    • Patient Perspective
    • Electronic Health Records
    • Apps
    • Information Technology
    • From the College
    • Multimedia
      • Audio
      • Video
  • Resources
    • Issue Archives
    • ACR Convergence
      • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Resource Center
      • Rheumatoid Arthritis Resource Center
      • Gout Resource Center
      • Abstracts
      • Meeting Reports
      • ACR Convergence Home
    • American College of Rheumatology
    • ACR ExamRheum
    • Research Reviews
    • ACR Journals
      • Arthritis & Rheumatology
      • Arthritis Care & Research
      • ACR Open Rheumatology
    • Rheumatology Image Library
    • Treatment Guidelines
    • Rheumatology Research Foundation
    • Events
  • About Us
    • Mission/Vision
    • Meet the Authors
    • Meet the Editors
    • Contribute to The Rheumatologist
    • Subscription
    • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Search
You are here: Home / Articles / Researchers Seek ANCA-Associated Vasculitis Subtype Markers

Researchers Seek ANCA-Associated Vasculitis Subtype Markers

October 19, 2020 • By Larry Beresford

  • Tweet
  • Email
Print-Friendly Version / Save PDF

Looking for Markers

Providers who care for patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis can appreciate the continued challenges of managing this disease, Dr. Wu says. One such challenge is the toxicity associated with long-term steroid use and other immunosuppressive therapies.

You Might Also Like
  • Researchers Seek the Best Methods to Maintain Remission in Vasculitis
  • Research Shows Genetic Links in ANCA-Associated Vasculitis
  • ANCA-Associated Vasculitis Trial Results May Change Standard of Care
Explore This Issue
October 2020
Also By This Author
  • Genomics Research Highlighted at Lupus Conference

“We are looking for a marker, or panel of markers, to assess how active the disease is, its response to treatment, when the patient is about to relapse or when the disease is quiet enough to take the patient off treatment. We’re hoping to learn whether complement activation can be one of those markers,” Dr. Wu says. “Our results further substantiate the contribution of complement activation in ANCA-associated vasculitis, although the clinical implications are as yet uncertain.”

ad goes here:advert-1
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Could measures of complement activation predict who will relapse soon or experience complete remission? “And could complement activation be a possible target for therapy?” she asks

‘Our results further substantiate the contribution of complement activation in ANCA-associated vasculitis, although the clinical implications are as yet uncertain.’ —Dr. Wu

Peter Heeringa, PhD, professor in the Department of Pathology and Medical Biology, Vasculitis Expertise Center, University Medical Center, Groningen, The Netherlands, and a leading researcher in this field, notes that data from experimental animal models and from histopathological, serological and in vitro studies on human material strongly support a role for complement in the pathogenesis of ANCA-associated vasculitis—a role that may be amenable to therapeutic intervention.

Targeting the C5a–C5aR axis, in particular, seemed a logical step in the treatment of ANCA-associated vasculitis, given the availability of drugs specific to C5aR or C5 that were already approved for other indications, he tells The Rheumatologist in an email. “The study by Dr. Wu et al. investigated for the first time complement activation in plasma from PR3-ANCA patients, which has been one of the unresolved questions in the field. Prior to this study, investigations had mainly focused on MPO-ANCA patients.”

The new research has established that complement activation also occurs in PR3-ANCA positive patients, Dr. Heeringa says. This is important because MPO-ANCA and PR3-ANCA positive patients are the main serological subtypes of this disease, with increasing evidence that these subgroups differ with respect to pathophysiologic mechanisms.

ad goes here:advert-3
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Importantly, the study also took care to optimize the processing of serum samples to more accurately measure complement activation analytes in plasma samples by adding futhan to block in vitro complement activation, he says. It is important to prevent complement activation due to sample processing, which can lead to false-positive results.

The clinical impact of measuring complement activation analytes in terms of distinguishing active disease from disease remission or predicting lower relapse risk is less clear from this study, as acknowledged by the authors, Dr. Heeringa notes. “An important question that will need to be addressed in the future is whether all ANCA-associated vasculitis patients will benefit from C5aR-targeted therapy and whether profiles of complement analytes can aid in this.”

ad goes here:advert-2
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Pages: 1 2 3 | Single Page

Filed Under: Conditions, Vasculitis Tagged With: avacopan, Biomarkers, complement activation, eculizumabIssue: October 2020

You Might Also Like:
  • Researchers Seek the Best Methods to Maintain Remission in Vasculitis
  • Research Shows Genetic Links in ANCA-Associated Vasculitis
  • ANCA-Associated Vasculitis Trial Results May Change Standard of Care
  • ANCA-Associated Vasculitis in Systemic Sclerosis

Meeting Abstracts

Browse and search abstracts from the ACR Convergence and ACR/ARP Annual Meetings going back to 2012.

Visit the Abstracts site »

Simple Tasks

Learn more about the ACR’s public awareness campaign and how you can get involved. Help increase visibility of rheumatic diseases and decrease the number of people left untreated.

Visit the Simple Tasks site »

Rheumatology Research Foundation

The Foundation is the largest private funding source for rheumatology research and training in the U.S.

Learn more »

The Rheumatologist newsmagazine reports on issues and trends in the management and treatment of rheumatic diseases. The Rheumatologist reaches 11,500 rheumatologists, internists, orthopedic surgeons, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, and other healthcare professionals who practice, research, or teach in the field of rheumatology.

About Us / Contact Us / Advertise / Privacy Policy / Terms of Use

  • Connect with us:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Feed

Copyright © 2006–2022 American College of Rheumatology. All rights reserved.

ISSN 1931-3268 (print)
ISSN 1931-3209 (online)

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.