The lupus nephritis management renaissance

Over the past year, and for the first time ever, the US Food and Drug Administration approved 2 drugs specifically for the treatment of lupus nephritis (LN). As the lupus community works toward understanding how to best use these new therapies, it is also an ideal time to begin to rethink the overall management strategy of LN. In addition to new drugs, this must include how to use kidney biopsies for management and not just diagnosis, how molecular technologies can be applied to interrogate biopsies and how such data can impact management, and how to incorporate LN biomarkers into management paradigms. Herein, we will review new developments in these areas of LN and put them into perspective for disease management now and in the future.

Automated summary

This article discusses the approval of two drugs by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of lupus nephritis (LN), and emphasizes the need to rethink the overall management strategy of LN, including utilizing kidney biopsies for management, applying molecular technologies to interrogate biopsy data, and incorporating LN biomarkers into management paradigms.