Niclosamide as an adjuvant to etanercept in treatment patients with active rheumatoid arthritis: an 8-week randomized controlled pilot study

This study designed to identify the therapeutic efficacy of niclosamide (NCL) in Iraqi patients suffering from active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who were using etanercept (ETN) for more than 3  months and still had high or moderate active RA. One hundred ten patients suffering from active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who were using etanercept (ETN) for more than 3 months and still had high or moderate active RA were allocated randomly into two equal groups: one of them treated with 1000 m g/day NCL and the other treated with 1000 mg/day lactose in capsule dosage form. The study duration was 8 weeks. Clinical efficacy of the NCL was measured depending on scoring of the 28-joint Disease Activity Score (DAS28), simple disease activity index (SDAI), clinical disease activity index (CDA I), and Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI) at the baseline and at the end of the 8-week treatment period. Moreover, blood sample were taken from the patients at baseline and at after 8 weeks of treatment for measurement of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin 1β (IL-1 β), interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), and E-selectin. At the end of the clinical study, patients had good response to NCL when added to the ETN with a high signi ficant improvement in the SJC, TJC, DAS-28, CDAI, SDAI, and HAQ-DI compared to patients who were received...
Source: Clinical Rheumatology - Category: Rheumatology Source Type: research