Novel approaches to primary membranous nephropathy: Beyond the KDIGO guidelines

Abstract

Primary membranous nephropathy (PMN) is an immune-mediated glomerular disease. Rituximab (RTX) is recommended as a first-line immunosuppressive therapy and shows high clinical efficacy, but the optimal doses remain controversial. Approximately 20%–40% of PMN patients experience RTX resistance and failure. Reduced bioavailability, RTX internalization and attack, anti-RTX antibody production, autoreactive B-cell reservoirs and chronic and irreversible renal damage may contribute to this problem. Therefore, new treatment modalities are needed to compensate for this deficit. New interventions and new dose combinations are being proposed. Multiple drug combination therapies show comparable clinical efficacy to conventional treatments by blocking the production of disease-causing antibodies in multiple directions, and can reduce single-agent doses without increasing adverse effects. New therapies that directly target B cells, plasma cells, and antibody production have shown encouraging results. In addition, new techniques for sweeping antibodies and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy also may be promising strategies for PMN. Immunoadsorption could be used as an auxiliary choice for severe cases. This article explores new treatments for PMN and highlights possible mechanisms for potential new technologies that offer new ideas for treatment.