Targeted drug therapy found effective in patients with membranous nephropathyhttp://www.nephronline.com/nephnews/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3412&Itemid=133The drug rituximab causes considerable kidney injury healing in patients with membranous nephropathy, according to a
study appearing in the November 2008 issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology. The results
suggest that this condition, previously destined to progress to kidney failure in 30-40% of cases, can actually be healed
in some patients.
Researchers have studied immunosuppressive drugs’ abilities to inhibit the production of the antibodies that attack the
kidneys during the progression of membranous nephropathy, but their effects have been inconsistent.
New research shows that rituximab, a treatment for B cell lymphoma, selectively depletes B lymphocytes, the cells that
produce the damaging autoantibodies of membranous nephropathy. These same researchers, led by Piero Ruggenenti,
MD, of the Negri Bergamo Laboratories in Bergamo, Italy, have now provided evidence that rituximab actually reduces
the amount of kidney injury in patients with the disease.
In this study, Ruggenenti and his colleagues treated 50 patients with membranous nephropathy with rituximab. The
investigators found that 10 of the patients eventually achieved a complete remission of their disease, seven of whom
provided consent to participate in further evaluations, including additional kidney biopsies. In these patients, deposits of
autoantibodies eventually disappeared or were almost entirely reabsorbed and the damage originally noted in certain
kidney structures significantly healed.
The article, entitled “Effects of Rituximab on Morphofunctional Abnormalities of Membranous Glomerulopathy,” is available
online and in the November print issue of CJASN.
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