Rupali Avasare
Oregon Health & Science University, OR·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Lipoic acid is an over-the-counter dietary supplement taken for general wellness and for conditions such as nerve pain. Work behind this project links its use to a rare autoimmune kidney disease: membranous nephropathy driven by antibodies against a protein called NELL1 (neural epidermal growth factor-like 1).
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Microbiology & Immunology
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
membranous nephropathy
proteinuria
autoimmune kidney disease
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2029
What they work on
- Determine whether circulating NELL1 antibodies, measured by Western blot, associate with and precede protein loss in the urine among 150 lipoic acid users followed over two years.
- Characterize the phenotype and function of T cells in lipoic acid users who develop proteinuria, using flow cytometry on peripheral blood mononuclear cells collected at pre-specified intervals.
- Test whether the imbalance between regulatory CD4+ T cells, which restrain immune attack, and inflammation-promoting TH17 cells seen in another form of membranous nephropathy is also present in lipoic acid-associated NELL1 disease.
- Evaluate whether NELL1 antibody testing can serve as a biomarker for early-stage disease in susceptible supplement users, supporting earlier detection before kidney function declines.
More about the research
In this disease the immune system attacks the kidney's filters, so protein leaks into the urine, the body swells, blood clots become more likely, and untreated it can end in kidney failure. Among patients with NELL1 membranous nephropathy, about a third report taking lipoic acid; most are women and a sizeable fraction already have another autoimmune condition. How the supplement triggers the antibody response, and whether antibodies appear before disease does, are unknown.
Why it matters
NELL1 membranous nephropathy can progress to kidney failure if it is not caught early, and lipoic acid is a widely available supplement that people take without medical supervision. Finding that blood NELL1 antibodies and particular T cell patterns precede protein loss in the urine could give clinicians a way to detect the disease in supplement users before kidney damage sets in, and could reveal immune targets for treatment.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Laith Al-Rabadi
University of Utah, UT·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Identify the HTRA1 epitopes, the protein regions bound by autoantibodies, in membranous nephropathy, and determine how antibody binding affects HTRA1's protein-cutting function, using proteomics and patient biospecimens.
Jan Novak
University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether circulating IgA1 immune complexes from patients with progressive IgA nephropathy are larger and more active, measuring their ability to make kidney mesangial cells grow, signal and release cytokines, compared with non-progressive disease.
Daniel Brennan
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine how donor APOL1 genotype affects time to graft failure, kidney function decline, acute rejection and proteinuria in recipients of kidneys from African American donors.
The school
Oregon Health & Science University: 24 labs on PI Pages, $545M a year on research, 54 research doctorates a year.
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