A new study from researchers in Germany offers fresh hope for people suffering from a severe form of kidney inflammation.
Scientists from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn, and the University of Hamburg have discovered that smaller, repeated doses of steroids might be enough to treat crescentic glomerulonephritis (cGN)—a particularly aggressive type of kidney inflammation.
This condition is one of the most dangerous forms of kidney disease. Without treatment, it can quickly lead to complete kidney failure, sometimes in just a few weeks.
The standard treatment right now involves giving patients high doses of steroids called glucocorticoids.
These drugs work by calming the immune system and reducing inflammation. However, they also come with serious side effects, such as high blood sugar (which can cause diabetes), weaker bones (osteoporosis), and an increased r…
To better understand how steroids affect the kidneys, the research team led by Professor Christian Kurts used advanced technology to study kidney tissue in great detail. They used single-cell and spatial gene sequencing to look closely at individual cells in the kidneys of mice with kidney inflammation.
What they found was a special group of immune cells called pro-inflammatory neutrophils. These cells seem to play a big role in causing damage during kidney inflammation. Unlike regular neutrophils that quickly disappear, these harmful ones stay in the kidney longer and continue to fuel inflammation.
Here’s the breakthrough: the researchers discovered that even small, repeated doses of steroids could stop these dangerous cells from forming. In their experiments with mice, the low-dose treatment worked just as well as high doses—without needing an initial strong shot of medication.
They also looked at kidney biopsies from human patients and found that people who received low steroid doses had fewer of these harmful cells in their kidneys.
Dr. Junping Yin, the lead author of the study, explained that thanks to the use of single-cell sequencing, the team could follow the activity of these damaging immune cells directly inside the inflamed kidney. This level of detail helped them understand how and where steroids were working.
These findings, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, could change how doctors treat patients with cGN. If confirmed in clinical trials with human patients, this new approach could allow for safer treatment plans. Patients might get the same benefit from steroids, but with much lower risks of dangerous side effects.
In the future, this low-dose method could also be useful for other autoimmune and inflammatory diseases that are currently treated with high doses of steroids. Conditions like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and certain lung diseases may one day be treated more safely and effectively.
This study gives hope that people with serious kidney inflammation could get better treatment options—ones that protect their organs without harming the rest of their body.
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The study is published in Science Translational Medicine.
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