# Monitoring Disease in Lupus

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON · 2024 · $648,449

## Abstract

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a systemic, autoimmune connective tissue disease affecting multiple
organ systems, marked by arthritis, dermatitis, nephritis (LN) as well as neurological involvement. The
prevalence of LN varies depending on age, sex, and ethnicity, and is estimated to be 40–70%. Despite
advancements in the understanding of the pathophysiology of end-organ involvement in lupus, and novel
therapeutics, only 50–70% of patients achieve remission. There is clearly a need for identifying easily
 measurable biomarkers for diagnosing and monitoring this autoimmune disease, predicting response to therapy
 and prognosticating long term outcome in lupus. Our project focuses on identifying proteins in body fluids that
 may help identify and subset lupus more effectively. In the past cycle of funding, we have reported serum
 biomarkers for systemic disease in lupus, cerebrospinal fluid proteins for neuropsychiatric lupus, as well as
 excreted proteins for renal disease, using a variety of different proteomic approaches. In this renewal proposal,
 we will focus on ten proteins that have been independently validated across multiple patient cohorts, using
orthogonal approaches, as being highly reflective of disease activity in lupus. Together, these 10 proteins
 constitute LN-10-plex. We will perform extended clinical validation of the LN-10-plex proteins in larger patient
 cohorts of different ethnic origins to confirm their association and correlation with clinical disease activity, using
 training and validation cohorts. Using longitudinal cohorts, we will examine if the LN-10-plex proteins at baseline
can be used to predict oncoming disease flares. In lupus patients undergoing induction therapy, we will
 ascertain if baseline levels of LN-10-plex proteins can predict response to therapy. We will also assess if easily
 measurable biomarkers can be used to track tissue pathology, as this will avoid the need for repeat biopsies.
 Thus, the broad, over-arching goal of our research is to be able to identify easily measurable biomarkers of
 disease in lupus, and harness them for improved clinical utility.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10976598
- **Project number:** 2R01AR074096-06
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON
- **Principal Investigator:** CHANDRA MOHAN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $648,449
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2019-03-08 → 2029-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10976598

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10976598, Monitoring Disease in Lupus (2R01AR074096-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10976598. Licensed CC0.

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