PD-1/B7-H1 pathway may play an important role in negatively modulating T cell-mediated immune response in OLP, and provide the rationale to employ B7-H1 expression on peripheral blood T cells as a marker of severity of OLP and to develop agonists targeting PD-1/B7-H1 pathway as a promising immunotherapeutic strategy for OLP.

Nuclear factor-kappa B activation and its correlation with overexpression of TNF-alpha may play an important role in pathogenesis of OLP. There might be a positive regulatory loop between NF-kappaB and TNF-alpha, which may contribute to inflammation in OLP; NF-kappaB may also protect epithelial keratinocytes from excessive apoptosis.

BackgroundTime-restricted feeding (TRF) has become a popular weight loss method in recent years. It is widely used in the nutritional treatment of normal obese people and obese people with chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus and hypertension, and has shown many benefits. However, most TRF studies have excluded chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients, resulting in a lack of sufficient evidence-based practice for the efficacy and safety of TRF therapy for CKD. Therefore, we explore the efficacy and safety of TRF in overweight and obese patients with moderate-to-severe stage CKD through this pilot study, and observe patient compliance to assess the feasibility of the therapy.MethodsThis is a prospective, non-randomized controlled short-term clinical trial. We recruited overweight and obese patients with CKD stages 3-4 from an outpatient clinic and assigned them to either a TRF group or a control diet (CD) group according to their preferences. Changes in renal function, other biochemical data, anthropometric parameters, gut microbiota, and adverse events were measured before the intervention and after 12 weeks.ResultsThe change in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) before and after intervention in the TRF group (Δ = 3.1 ± 5.3 ml/min/1.73m2) showed significant improvement compared with the CD group (Δ = -0.8 ± 4.4 ml/min/1.73m2). Furthermore, the TRF group had a significant decrease in uric acid (Δ = -70.8 ± 124.2 μmol/L), but an increase in total protein (Δ = 1.7 ± 2.5 g/L), while the changes were inconsistent for inflammatory factors. In addition, the TRF group showed a significant decrease in body weight (Δ = -2.8 ± 2.9 kg) compared to the CD group, and body composition indicated the same decrease in body fat mass, fat free mass and body water. Additionally, TRF shifted the gut microbiota in a positive direction.ConclusionPreliminary studies suggest that overweight and obese patients with moderate-to-severe CKD with weight loss needs, and who were under strict medical supervision by healthcare professionals, performed TRF with good compliance. They did so without apparent adverse events, and showed efficacy in protecting renal function. These results may be due to changes in body composition and alterations in gut microbiota.