Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Dec 6, 2021; 9(34): 10464-10471
Published online Dec 6, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i34.10464
Effect of Nephritis Rehabilitation Tablets combined with tacrolimus in treatment of idiopathic membranous nephropathy
Wei Lv, Mei-Rong Wang, Cheng-Zhen Zhang, Xue-Xu Sun, Zhen-Zhen Yan, Xiao-Min Hu, Tao-Tao Wang
Wei Lv, Cheng-Zhen Zhang, Xue-Xu Sun, Tao-Tao Wang, Department of Nephology, China People’s Liberation Army 32298, Weifang 261000, Shandong Province, China
Mei-Rong Wang, Department of Pharmacy, China People’s Liberation Army 32298, Weifang 261000, Shandong Province, China
Zhen-Zhen Yan, Xiao-Min Hu, Department of Blood Purification, China People’s Liberation Army 32298, Weifang 261000, Shandong Province, China
Author contributions: Lv W, Wang MR, and Wang TT designed this study; Lv W, Wang MR, and Zhang CZ wrote this paper; Lv W, Wang MR, Zhang CZ, Sun XX, Yan ZZ, and Hu XM were responsible for sorting the data.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Hospital of No. 80 Group Army Institutional Review Board (Approval No. 63).
Informed consent statement: All patients gave informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The manuscript was checked and revised according to the STROBE Statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Tao-Tao Wang, BMed, Attending Doctor, Department of Nephology, China People’s Liberation Army 32298, No. 256 North Palace West Street, Weicheng District, Weifang 261000, Shandong Province, China. 187254754@qq.com
Received: July 19, 2021
Peer-review started: July 19, 2021
First decision: August 19, 2021
Revised: August 22, 2021
Accepted: October 12, 2021
Article in press: October 12, 2021
Published online: December 6, 2021
Processing time: 134 Days and 0.4 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) has a high incidence in the middle-aged and elderly population, and poses a great threat to the physical and mental health and quality of life of patients. The incidence of IMN has continued to increase in recent years, and safe and effective treatments are of significant research interest.

Research motivation

Glucocorticoid therapy alone has difficulty achieving ideal effects in IMN, and the incidence of adverse reactions is high. Tacrolimus is a new calcineurin inhibitor that can effectively improve renal function with low dose and high safety.

Research objectives

This study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of Nephritis Rehabilitation Tablets combined with tacrolimus in the treatment of IMN.

Research methods

On the basis of routine symptomatic treatment, the control group was treated with tacrolimus, and the study group was treated with nephritis rehabilitation tablets in addition to control group treatment. Both groups were treated for 12 wk. The therapeutic effect, the levels of renal function indexes, and the incidence of adverse reactions were measured before and after 12 wk of treatment.

Research results

The results showed that the total effective rate of the study group was higher than that of the control group, the quantitative levels of Scr and 24-h urinary protein of the study group were lower than those of the control group, and the level of serum albumin was higher than that of the control group. IMN autoantibodies play an intermediary role, while complement proteins play an important role in organ-specific autoimmune diseases. The levels of urinary IgG4 and C5b-9 in the study group were lower than those in the control group.

Research conclusions

Nephritis Rehabilitation Tablets combined with tacrolimus in the treatment of IMN can effectively improve the renal function of patients and downregulate the expression of urinary IgG4 and C5b-9. In addition, they can improve the overall therapeutic effect while not increasing the risk of adverse reactions.

Research perspectives

This study has fewer samples, and further multi-center research is required to confirm our findings.