Evaluation of the Immune Checkpoint Factors in Idiopathic Membranous Nephropathy Publisher Pubmed



Motavalli R^{1, 2} ; Hosseini M³ ; Soltanizangbar MS¹ ; Karimi A² ; Sadeghi M² ; Dolati S⁴ ; Yousefi M⁵ ; Etemadi J⁶
Source: Molecular and Cellular Probes Published:2023

Abstract

Idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN), a single-organ autoimmune disease, is recognized by autoantibodies to podocyte proteins and identified as the most frequent cause of nephrotic syndrome in adults. T cells are important contributors in autoimmunity since they promote B–cell development, antibody production, direct inflammation, and organ tissue cytotoxicity. This study investigated the inhibitory immune checkpoint (ICP) receptors expressed on T lymphocytes and other immune cells. Thus, PBMCs from IMN patients were obtained before treatment, and the levels of ICPs such as programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA4), lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3), and T cell immunoglobulin-3 (TIM-3) were examined at both gene and protein expression using real time PCR and Western blot tests respectively. The results illustrated that gene expression levels of ICPs reduced significantly in comparison to the control which were verified by related fold changes of protein expression sequentially. Our study revealed that CTLA-4, PD-1, TIM-3, and LAG-3 expression is impaired in IMN patients before treatment which could be a potential target for therapy. © 2023 The Authors