Therapeutic effects of leflunomide, a new antirheumatic drug, on glomerulonephritis induced by the antibasement membrane antibody in rats

Leflunomide and malononitriloamides

“…These effects correlate with the suppression of autoantibodies to tubular basement membrane [50]. In glomerulonephritis induced by rabbit antiserum against rat glomerular basement membrane, leflunomide demonstrates preventive and therapeutic effects, reducing urinary total protein, plasma total cholesterol and fibrinogen, thymus weight and deposition of fibrin, C3, and IgG in the glomerulus [51]. In a model of experimental autoimmune uveitis induced by injection of retinal S-antigen into the foot-pad of Lewis rats, leflunomide, administered either orally or topically, suppressed the ocular disease signs and symptoms and retinal necrosis, reducing the S-antigen antibody levels associated with experimental autoimmune uveitis in a dose-dependent manner [52].…”

“…A77 1726 suppresses autoimmune diseases in many animal models [45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52], and also decreases autoantibody production in these models. Both allo-and xenoantibody levels are also decreased in leflunomide-treated rodent recipients of allo-and xenografts [24,[53][54][55][56], but the mechanisms of action of the drug on B-cell proliferation and on antibody production are unknown.…”

Leflunomide plus oral prednisone in treatment of idiopathic membranous nephropathy: A retrospective clinical study of efficacy and safety

“…However, nephrotic syndrome reappeared in five out of the 23 patients (21.7%) who were in remission by 15 months. Median time to relapse was 14 months (range, [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] after cessation of LEF. There were no significant differences in either biochemical or demographic parameters at baseline between relapsing and non-relapsing patients.…”

“…Since it was introduced in 1998, LEF has been also explored for treatment of glomerulonephritis. Ogawa et al 16 used LEF to treat anti-glomerular basement membrane glomerulonephritis in animal models. They reported that LEF had therapeutic effects on proteinuria as well as inhibitory effects on the glomerular immunoglobulin G and C3 deposits.…”

Effect of leflunomide on sciatic nerve of adult albino rats

“…Leflunomide was given orally by a gastric tube at a dose of 2 mg/kg body weight suspended in 1 ml of distilled water daily for 8 weeks. The dose was equivalent to human therapeutic dose [21,22].…”