Dr. Manish Maski

Absolutely.

We now understand that loss of B-cell control is what leads to the downstream mechanisms resulting in kidney injury and kidney function loss.

So lots of research has been performed to try to understand what is influencing the B-cell to lose control.

It turns out that two proteins called BAF and APRIL are key drivers.

So first, Jordan, you're absolutely right that B cells, when they're doing what they're supposed to do, protect us from infections.

They make antibodies that help us neutralize various pathogens.

When B cells lose control, they can set off a cascade of events that result in processes that harm the body, so-called autoimmune diseases.

BAF and APRIL are two...

similar but distinct proteins that control the life cycle of the B cell.

So BAF more in the early stage of development and maturation of the B cell, and April more in the later stage of the B cell development, all the way through to it becoming an antibody-secreting cell.

Baf and April really seem to be two of the most critical proteins driving this transition from something that would protect us to something that would actually make antibodies that will harm our native tissues.

We know that the levels of BATH and APRIL are actually elevated in people with IgA nephropathy and that these levels correlate with measures of kidney function and damage.

So through that, we believe both of these drivers are involved in uncontrolled B cells, not BATH alone and not APRIL alone.

There's a need to cast the widest net to catch the main actors involved in the pathogenesis of IgA nephropathy.

What we hope to see with this approach is the potential to restore immune balance for our patients and give them the best chance at remission in the proteinuria, which is the protein spilling in the urine, hematuria, which is the spilling of blood in the urine, with associated stabilization of kidney function.