3TR (Taxonomy, Treatment, Targets and Remission) Systemic Lupus Erithematosus Study Protocol

The natural history of Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is characterized by relapses or flares alternated with periods of remission. Flares are associated with accrual of organ damage independently of other risk factors, both contributing to a considerable morbidity. No useful biomarker is currently available to predict which patients with a quiescent disease are at risk of flare. The 3TR project (funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 831434, and supported by European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA) is a transdisciplinary consortium that primary aims at identifying biosignatures as predictors of response and non-response to therapy in seven different autoimmune, allergic and inflammatory diseases, including SLE. 3TR will perform a longitudinal multi-dimensional molecular analysis in patients with these diseases. A molecular profiling approach is a modern and innovative way to investigate and stratify heterogeneous diseases on the basis of their common biomolecular pathways. The main hypothesis of the 3TR project is that data obtained from multiomic analysis across the seven different diseases will identify shared biological pathways that better predict the response or non-response to therapy despite their differences in terms of clinical phenotypes and pathogenetic mechanisms. Therefore patients from multiple European centers participating in 3TR will be recruited for a longitudinal clinical follow-up and collections of several samples that will be used to perform multi-omic analysis.