Abstract

THE COMBINATION THERAPY OF IGURATIMOD AND METHOTREXATE FOR THE TREATMENT OF RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Muhammad Usman, HAN Jun-ping, CHANG Ze-na, ZHU Zhen Han, Luo Xing-xian and YANG Chang-qing*

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a collective autoimmune disease largely exhibiting as chronic synovitis, consequently leading to an alteration in joint integrity. The objective of this review is to clarify the safety and effectiveness of combine use of Iguratimod (IGU) and Methotrexate (MTX). Antirheumatic drugs are efficient of controlling synovial inflammation and are thus termed as „disease-modifying antirhematic drugs‟ (DMARDs). MTX is highly recognized as the „anchor drug‟ for patients with RA, with advanced and prolonged effectiveness, acceptability, and safety than any other disease modifying antirhematic drugs. Conversely, about 20% to 40% of patients feel inadequate reactions to MTX and need additional therapy, thus a prevalent combination recently use is MTX and IGU in China and Japan. Normally, this combination treatment is well accepted and related through no substantial raise in the degree of adverse actions competed beside the monotherapy. Furthermore, the combination therapy showed a significant improvement in American college of rheumatology (ACR) 50 and ACR70 and disease activity score (DAS) 28. This review presents a summary of seven controlled, double blind trials documenting the safety and effectiveness of IGU in combination with MTX.

Keywords: Rheumatoid arthritis, Iguratimod, Methotrexate, Disease modifying antirheumatic drugs, Disease activity score, American college of rheumatology.