Those who suffer from lupus nephritis may benefit from a treatment using several drugs that target various parts of the immune system. This treatment may even be more effective that traditional therapies, at least according to a group of Chinese researchers, led by Dr. Lei-Shi Li of the University School of Medicine in Nanjing, China. The findings were recently published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
In the study, patients with class V+IV lupus nephritis received immunosuppressant drugs tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil, plus a steroid. Patients showed complete remission, with recovery of normal kidney function allegedly four times higher than conventionally treated patients (those patients’ given a single immunosuppressant), with a complete remission rate of 65 percent at nine months. Conventionally treated patients reached a 15 percent high at nine months.
The logic behind the study? Since the impact of lupus on the kidney involves various parts of the immune system, those parts should be attacked with a combination of immunosuppressant drugs.
