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Glomerular disease

Rituximab therapy for IgA nephropathy

As IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is considered to result in part from autoimmune processes, B-cell depletion using rituximab might be a plausible therapy. However, a small randomized, controlled trial in patients at risk of progressive IgAN reports that this therapy failed to reduce proteinuria over 1 year and was associated with more adverse events per patient.

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Figure 1: Immunohistological and histological changes in IgA nephropathy.

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Correspondence to Jürgen Floege.

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Competing interests

J.F. has received consultancy fees from Pharmalink, Sweden, and is a principal investigator in an Anthera-sponsored clinical trial in IgA nephropathy.

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Floege, J. Rituximab therapy for IgA nephropathy. Nat Rev Nephrol 13, 138–140 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneph.2016.188

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