title: Unmet medical needs in lupus nephritis: solutions through evidence-based, personalized medicine.
abstract: Lupus nephritis (LN) remains a kidney disease with significant unmet medical needs despite extensive clinical and translational research over the past decade. These include the need to (i) predict the individual risk for LN in a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus, (ii) identify the best therapeutic option for an individual patient, (iii) distinguish chronic kidney damage from active immunologic kidney injury, (iv) develop efficient treatments with acceptable or no side effects and improve the design of randomized clinical trials so that effective drugs demonstrate efficacy. This review discusses the underlying reasons for these unmet medical needs and options of how to overcome them in the future.
authors.affiliation: Medizinische Klinik and Poliklinik IV , Klinikum der Universität München , Munich , Germany.
authors.forename: Hans-Joachim
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Anders
authors.affiliation: Medizinische Klinik and Poliklinik IV , Klinikum der Universität München , Munich , Germany.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weidenbusch
authors.affiliation: Division of Nephrology , Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center , Columbus , OH , USA.
authors.forename: Brad
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rovin
keywords: autoimmunity; disease activity; immune complex; response; rituximab