CASE REPORT - Enbrel-induced systemic lupus erythematosus in a patient with RA

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J Korean Med Sci. 2006 Oct;21(5):946-9.

Etanercept-induced systemic lupus erythematosus in a patient with rheumatoid

arthritis.

Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology Ewha Womans

University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is known to play a critical role in the

pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Etanercept is a recombinant

soluble fusion protein of TNF alpha type II receptor and IgG, which acts as

a specific TNF-alpha antagonist. Anti-TNF-alpha therapy has been an

important advance in the treatment of RA. However, induction of

autoantibodies in some proportion of patients treated with TNF alpha

inhibitors raised concerns for development of systemic autoimmune diseases

such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Although new autoantibody

formation is common with anti-TNF alpha therapy, there are only rare reports

of overt SLE, most of which manifested without major organ involvement and

resolved shortly after discontinuation of the therapy. We describe a

55-yr-old Korean woman who developed overt life threatening SLE complicated

by pneumonia and tuberculosis following etanercept treatment for RA. This

case is to our knowledge, the first report of etanercept-induced SLE in

Korea.

PMID: 17043436

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed & cmd=Retrieve & dopt=Abstra\

ctPlus & list_uids=17043436

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