Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Effect of combined use of prednisone and immunosuppressive therapy in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, and its influence on incidence of adverse reactions

Juan Liu¹, Yunhong Wang², Xiaojun Wang³

¹Department of Nephrology Rheumatology and Immunology, Longhui People's Hospital, Shaoyang City 422200, China; ²Department of Renal Rheumatology, Longhui People's Hospital, Shaoyang City 422200, China; ³Administration Department, Longhui People's Hospital, Shaoyang City 422200, China.

For correspondence:- Xiaojun Wang Email: jijuetan828@163.com Tel:+8613007390916

Accepted: 27 May 2022 Published: 30 June 2022

Citation: Liu J, Wang Y, Wang X. Effect of combined use of prednisone and immunosuppressive therapy in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, and its influence on incidence of adverse reactions. Trop J Pharm Res 2022; 21(6):1295-1300 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v21i6.23

© 2022 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To study the effect of combined use of prednisone and immunosuppressive therapy for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and its impact on the incidence of adverse reactions.

Methods: In total, 90 SLE patients treated in Longhui People's Hospital between January 2019 and January 2020 were included in this study, and assigned to receive either prednisone (control group) or immunosuppressive therapy and prednisone (study group) via the sealed envelope method. Outcome measures include immunoglobulin measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), complement component 3 (C3) and C4 determined by immunoturbidimetric method, inflammatory factors such as INF-α, IL-10, and IL-6 levels, and the incidence of drug reactions.

Results: After treatment, the treatment group had higher levels of immunoglobulin indices and C3 and C4 levels than the control group (p < 0.05). There were lower serum inflammatory factor levels in the treatment group than in the control group (p < 0.05). Prednisone and immunosuppressive therapy resulted in higher treatment effectiveness and lower SLEDAI scores, versus prednisone alone (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Prednisone and immunosuppressive therapy for SLE is safe, enhances treatment effectiveness, and improves clinical indicators in the patients. However, further trials are required prior to its application in clinical practice.

Keywords: Systemic lupus erythematosus, Prednisone, Immunosuppressive therapy