From the Large Scale Expression Analysis of Lupus Nephritis to Targeted Molecular Medicine

Lupus nephritis (LN) is one of the most severe complications of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Current treatments for LN lack sufficient efficacy as they do not necessarily target the LN responsible pathways and therapeutic responses vary widely in the patient population. LN mouse models have been useful in delineating disease pathogenesis and for testing novel therapies, but they do not entirely represent the events happening in human LN. This review describes how recently developed systems biology technologies can help to integrate current knowledge with large scale experimental data to generate new hypotheses and insight into the regulatory events occurring in LN.