Complete remission within reach for rare autoimmune disease

Pemphigus, an autoimmune disease mediated by B cells and which causes painful blisters and sores on the skin and mucous membranes, is a rare chronic autoimmune condition that can be fatal if not treated. Treatment for pemphigus, most commonly through an oral medication, was often slow and would not result in complete remission. Now, new research from a team in the Perelman School of Medicine shows that a lymphoma-dose regimen of rituximab, a medication regularly used to treat lymphoma and rheumatoid arthritis, is more likely to put patients with pemphigus into complete remission as compared to a rheumatoid arthritis (RA) regimen of the same medication. The findings—which were published in JAMA Dermatology—have direct implications for patient care.

collection of various prescription pills

When rituximab, an antibody which was first used to treat B cell lymphoma, became a treatment for pemphigus vulgaris, clinicians could choose to prescribe either a “lymphoma dose” or an “RA dose.” A lymphoma-dose regimen of rituximab is a more aggressive approach to treatment compared to the dosing method for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

“Our findings suggest that the more aggressive lymphoma approach gives a patient the best chance for complete remission off oral immune suppressants, says the study’s senior author Aimee Payne, director of the Penn Clinical Autoimmunity Center of Excellence, “and that’s obviously the desired outcome.”

Read more at Penn Medicine News.