Toward precision immunotherapy in nephrology: 1 step forward.

Abstract

Membranous nephropathy is an autoimmune disease most commonly caused by autoantibodies against the phospholipase A2 receptor 1. The pathogenicity of these autoantibodies offers the chance to develop highly specific therapies by targeting their cellular source (i.e., the autoreactive B cells). In this issue, Altun et al. provide further evidence for the feasibility of chimeric autoantibody receptor T cells to selectively eliminate these cells in phospholipase A2 receptor 1-associated membranous nephropathy, offering unprecedented specificity. Future studies need to address important open questions to evaluate the translational potential of this approach.