Characterisation of an enhanced preclinical model of experimental MPO-ANCA autoimmune vasculitis
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Accepted version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Experimental autoimmune vasculitis (EAV) is a model of antineutrophil cytoplasm antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) induced by immunisation of susceptible rat strains with myeloperoxidase (MPO). Animals develop circulating MPO-ANCA, pulmonary haemorrhage and glomerulonephritis, although renal injury is mild and recovers spontaneously without treatment. In this study we aimed to augment the severity of glomerulonephritis. Following induction of EAV on day 0, a sub-nephritogenic dose of nephrotoxic serum (NTS) containing heterologous antibodies to glomerular basement membrane was administered on day 14. This resulted in a significant increase in disease severity at day 28 compared to MPO immunisation alone - with more urinary abnormalities, infiltrating glomerular leucocytes, and crescent formation that progressed to glomerular and tubulointerstitial scarring by day 56, recapitulating important features of human disease. Importantly, the glomerulonephritis remained pauci-immune, and was strictly dependent on the presence of autoimmunity to MPO, as there was no evidence of renal disease following administration of sub-nephritogenic NTS alone or after immunisation with a control protein in place of MPO. Detailed phenotyping of glomerular leucocytes identified an early infiltrate of non-classical monocytes following NTS administration that, in the presence of autoimmunity to MPO, may initiate the subsequent influx of classical monocytes which augment glomerular injury. We also showed that this model can be used to test novel therapeutics by using a small molecule kinase inhibitor (fostamatinib) that rapidly attenuated both glomerular and pulmonary injury over a four-day treatment period. We believe that this enhanced model of MPO-AAV will prove useful for the study of glomerular leucocyte behaviour and novel therapeutics in AAV in the future. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Date Issued
2021-10-01
Date Acceptance
2021-06-11
Citation
Journal of Pathology, 2021, 255 (2), pp.107-119
ISSN
0022-3417
Publisher
Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland
Start Page
107
End Page
119
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Pathology
Volume
255
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Sponsor
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34124781
Grant Number
MR/M018733/1
Subjects
ANCA
MPO
experimental vasculitis
glomerulonephritis
monocytes
vasculitis
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Date Publish Online
2021-06-14