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TOPLINE
Patients with proliferative lupus nephritis (LN) treated with telitacicept plus standard of care (SoC) achieved complete renal response in more than two thirds of cases at 24 weeks — substantially higher than with SoC alone. The combination also enabled significant reductions in glucocorticoid dosages while improving disease activity markers.
METHODOLOGY
- Researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of 112 patients with biopsy-proven International Society of Nephrology/Renal Pathology Society Class III/IV (with or without Class V) proliferative LN in China.
- Participants were divided into 2 groups: 56 patients (mean age, 36.2 years; 87.5% women) received telitacicept 160 mg subcutaneously once weekly (initiated within the first 3 months of induction) added to SoC (antimalarials, medium-to-high-dose glucocorticoids, and either mycophenolate mofetil or cyclophosphamide), whereas 56 patients (mean age, 31.8 years; 92.9% women) received SoC alone.
- Treatment efficacy for LN was categorized as complete renal response, partial renal response, or no renal response.
- Propensity score-based inverse probability of treatment weighting was employed to minimize selection bias and confounding factors.
TAKEAWAY
- At week 12, the telitacicept group showed a significantly higher rate of complete renal response than the control group (41.1% vs 8.9%; P < .001).
- The telitacicept group also showed a markedly higher rate of complete renal response at week 24 (67.9% vs 39.3%; P = .004). This benefit persisted at week 52, with a complete renal response rate of 84.1% in the telitacicept group vs 63.0% in the control group (P = .036).
- At week 52, glucocorticoid dose was lower in the telitacicept group than in the control group (7.50 mg/d vs 10.00 mg/d), and British Isles Lupus Assessment Group scores were also significantly reduced (0.38 vs 3.50; P < .001).
- Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified telitacicept treatment as an independent predictor for achieving complete renal response (hazard ratio, 4.43; P < .001).
IN PRACTICE
"These data support telitacicept as a pivotal therapeutic strategy for optimising outcomes in patients with proliferative LN," the authors wrote.
SOURCE
The study was led by Ting Tian, The Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University in Guiyang, China. It was published online on September 12 in Lupus Science & Medicine.
LIMITATIONS
The retrospective design and single-center nature of the study may have limited generalizability. The relatively short follow-up period of 52 weeks may not have captured long-term outcomes or rare adverse events. The modest sample size may have limited the precision of some outcome estimates.
DISCLOSURES
The study did not report any specific funding sources. The authors reported no relevant conflicts of interest.
This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
