PReS-FINAL-2299: Novel biomarkers for the assessment of pediatric systemic lupus erythematosus nephritis (preliminary report)

Results The pSLE nephritis patients had significantly higher serum levels of anti-NCS [median: 48.89 (IQR: 31.4880.81) U/ml versus 12.5 (11.5-27.8) U/ml, p < 0.001], anti-C1q [22.75 (12.77-56.4) U/ml versus 12.5 (12.512.5) U/ml, p < 0.001], anti-GBM [3.88 (2.25-6.94) U/ml versus 2.2 (2.2-2.4) U/ml, p = 0.002] and HMGB1 [9.9 (5.7-32.23) ng/ml versus 2.5 (2.5-2.5) ng/ml, p < 0,001], than the patients with nephritis of other causality. Serum anti-GBM levels were significantly higher in the pSLE nephritis patients compared to the pSLE patients without nephritis [3.88 (2.25-6.94) U/ml versus 2.25 (2.2-2.83) U/ml, p = 0.014], while this was not true for the rest of the biomarkers. In the pSLE nephritis patients no correlation was found between serum antiGBM levels and pSLE nephritis disease activity. Serum anti-NCS and anti-C1q levels were positively correlated with the ECLAM score in the pSLE patients as a whole (p = 0.002, rho = 0.492 and p = 0.007, rho = 0.461, respectively). Conclusion In this pure Caucasian Northern Greek pSLE population, high serum anti-GBM levels were found to be associated with the presence of nephritis, but not with the nephritis disease activity. Serum anti-GBM, anti-NCS, anti-C1q and HMGB1 may be used to differentiate patients with pSLE nephritis from patients with nephritis of other causality. Furthermore, serum anti-NCS and anti-C1q may be useful for the estimation of pSLE disease activity.