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Irinotecan: A new treatment for SLE?

Nature Reviews Rheumatology volume 6, page 182 (2010)Cite this article

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Lupus nephritis is a major cause of mortality in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and the drugs currently used to treat this disease, such as cyclophosphamide, prednisolone, azathioprine and mycophenolate mofetil, have not been shown to reverse established lupus nephritis and associated proteinuria in mice.

While researching receptor-mediated apoptosis in lung cancer, a research group at the University of Bern, Switzerland, discovered that the topoisomerase I inhibitor irinotecan (an approved treatment for colorectal cancer) prevented death in mice injected with foreign cytokines, which suggests that this agent in some way inhibits immune hyper-reactivity. In light of this finding, the group investigated the effects of irinotecan in the NZB × NZW F1 mouse model of SLE.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS

  1. Frese-Schaper, M. et al. Reversal of established lupus nephritis and prolonged survival of New Zealand black × New Zealand white mice treated with the topoisomerase I inhibitor irinotecan. J. Immunol. 184, 2175–2182 (2010)

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  1. Nick Warde
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Warde, N. Irinotecan: A new treatment for SLE?. Nat Rev Rheumatol 6, 182 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2010.30

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2010.30

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