Clinical evaluation of D‐penicillamine by multicentric double‐blind comparative study in chronic rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

In order to evaluate clinical efficacy of D-penicillamine (DP) a double-blind study was conducted by the Metalcaptase Research Croup consisting of forty-one rheumatological centers in Japan. A total of 179 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was divided into two groups; one treated with 5 mg (control group) and the other with 100 mg (drug group) of DP in capsule form. The trial lasted 24 weeks. Global judgment by physicians revealed that improvement was found in 27% in the controls and 65% in the drug group. Adverse reactions occurred in 34% of the controls and 49% of the drug group. Skin rashes, taste disturbances, gastrointestinal upset and proteinuria were frequent in the drug group, but severe or fatal reactions could not be seen in this trial.

Low‐Dose D‐Penicillamine Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis

“…The higher dose of D-penicillamine in our study resulted in a greater number of patients converting from seropositive to seronegative, although our results were less impressive than others' (5).…”

Inhibition of Human Helper T Cell Function In Vitro by d-Penicillamine and CuSO4

“…D-Penicillamine (Pen)' has been demonstrated to be an effective agent in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (1)(2)(3)(4)(5). Despite extensive clinical experience with this drug, the explanation for its capacity to suppress rheumatoid inflammation remains unclear.…”

Immunopharmacologic studies of D-penicillamine-L-cysteine disulfide.

“…Treatment with PA has been reported to influence a number of immunological parameters during the course of RA. A consistent feature is the reduction in the amount of circulating immune com plexes in patients with RA (1)(2)(3).…”