Antigens in Membranous Nephropathy: Progress Toward Precision
Membranous nephropathy (MN) is an autoimmune glomerular disease and one of the most common causes of nephrotic syndrome in adults. During the last 10 years, the discovery of specific antigens associated with the subepithelial immune complex deposits in MN has heralded the advent of precision medicine in this disease. Following the initial discovery of the M-type phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R) as the antigen associated with 70% to 80% of primary MN,1,2 the thrombospondin type 1 domain-containing 7A (THSD7A) antigen was detected as another cause of approximately 2% to 5% of MN cases.