ArticlePharmacology2023
Comparative Efficacy and Safety of Biological Agents in the Treatment of Lupus Nephritis: A Network Meta-Analysis.
Article in Pharmacology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and safety of biologics, multitarget therapy, and standard therapy for lupus nephritis: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.Renal failure · 2024Pooled it
- Biologicals for the treatment of lupus nephritis: a Bayesian network meta-regression analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of belimumab therapy for patients with lupus nephritis: A meta-analysis and a propensity score-matched case-control study.Immunity, inflammation and disease · 2023Pooled it
- The Evolution of Lupus Nephritis Therapy from the 1960s to the Present.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis of Initial Treatments for Lupus Nephritis.Kidney international reports · 2025Article
- Effects of drug administration routes on the efficacy and safety of treatments for systemic lupus erythematosus.American journal of translational research · 2025Review
- Pancytopenia as a first presentation of late-onset systemic lupus erythematosus: a case report.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2024Article
- Therapeutically targeting proinflammatory type I interferons in systemic lupus erythematosus: efficacy and insufficiency with a specific focus on lupus nephritis.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTo date, no studies have described randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the effectiveness and safety of various biological agents used in induction therapy for lupus nephritis.
objectivesWe designed this study to assess the relative efficacy and safety of some of these biological agents in patients with lupus nephritis.
methodWe collected data from RCTs that examined the efficacy and safety of any biological agents for lupus nephritis and then used these data to complete a Bayesian network meta-analysis to combine the direct and indirect evidence from these studies.
resultsWe identified nine RCTs evaluating rituximab, abatacept, belimumab, anifrolumab, obinutuzumab, ocrelizumab, and low-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2) across 1,480 patients. Low-dose IL-2, obinutuzumab, rituximab, and belimumab achieved complete remission in a significant proportion of respondents when compared with that in the control. Ranking probability based on the surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) indicated that low-dose IL-2 had the highest probability of achieving complete remission, followed by obinutuzumab, rituximab, belimumab, anifrolumab, abatacept, ocrelizumab, and the control. The risk of serious adverse events (SAE) tended to be lower for low-dose IL-2, rituximab, belimumab, and obinutuzumab than for the control. SUCRA-based ranking indicated that IL-2 had the highest probability of being safe, followed by rituximab, belimumab, obinutuzumab, control, anifrolumab, abatacept, and ocrelizumab.
conclusionsLow-dose IL-2 was the most effective induction treatment for patients with lupus nephritis and had the lowest potential for SAE. Higher complete remission rates and a more favorable safety profile suggest that low-dose IL-2, obinutuzumab, rituximab, and belimumab may be superior to the current control as treatments for lupus nephritis.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.