Rheumatoid arthritis drug effective against myasthenia gravis (1 dose rituximab protects up to 12 months)

Medical Xpress / Karolinska Institutet / JAMA Neurology ^ | Sept. 19, 2022 | Fredrik Piehl et al

[ConservativeMind]

Early intervention with rituximab, a drug used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), can reduce the risk of deterioration in myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease that causes loss of muscle control. This is according to a randomized clinical study.

"Patients with new onset myasthenia who received rituximab as a complement to standard of care showed greater improvement compared with patients who were given a placebo," says Fredrik Piehl. "They also needed fewer adjuvant treatments and lower doses of cortisone than the placebo group."

In myasthenia gravis, the immune system attacks the receptors between nerves and muscles, causing abnormal muscle weakness and fatigue. It often starts around the eye muscles but usually spread to other muscles in the body. The disease tends to progress in flare-ups and since there is no curative treatment, intervention is primarily aimed at dampening the immune system and treating the symptoms. Around 25 per 100,000 people live with the disease.

There is only one approved drug for myasthenia, Soliris, but the treatment is costly. Instead, many patients are treated with cortisone, which can cause side effects, and older tablet treatments that tend to lack scientific support.

The current study included 47 adult patients who had been diagnosed with myasthenia over the past year. Twenty-five of them were randomly assigned to a one-off treatment with 500 mg rituximab, a tried and tested drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, and 22 to a placebo group.

After four months, 71% of the rituximab group had attained good control of their disease according to a well-established 13-item rating scale, compared with 29% of the placebo group. Later follow-ups at six, nine and twelve months produced similar results.

The rituximab group also received on average lower doses of cortisone, and needed fewer adjuvant treatments.

[ConservativeMind]

A single 500 mg dose of rituximab, a monoclonal antibody, greatly helped patients for initially four months, but follow ups showed it effectively lasted until at least the twelve month point.

[ConservativeMind]

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[Theo]

Thanks! I’ve got a friend with this illness, and have passed this info along to him. I’d love to see it help him out.

[griffin]

Hoping it FDA approved...cuz....well, you know.

[ConservativeMind]

It is approved and available, but would have to be used off-label for this purpose.

[Jemian]

One dose of rituxamab costs me $14,000.

[RummyChick]

Hard to get insurance to approve that drug for RA

[Robert357]

bump for reference