Predicting and verifying outcome of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F. based therapy in rheumatoid arthritis: from open to double-blinded randomized trial

• DOI: 10.1038/srep09700
• Publication Date: 2016-01-05T10:02:16Z
• Authors: Miao Jiang; Qinglin Zha; Chi Zhang; Cheng Lu; Xiaoping Yan; Wanhua Zhu; Wei Liu; Shenghao Tu; Liping Hou; Chengwu Wang; Wandong Zhang; Qinghua Liang; Bing Fan; Jiangping Yu; Weidong Zhang; Xinru Liu; Jing Yang; Xiaojuan He; Li Li; Xuyan Niu; Yan Liu; Hongtao Guo; Bing He; Ge Zhang; Zhaoxiang Bian; Aiping Lu
• Keywords: Tripterygium wilfordii; Tripterygium; Combination therapy; Sulfasalazine

Abstract Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F. (TwHF) based therapy has been proved as effective in treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA), yet the predictors to its response remains unclear. A two-stage trial was designed identify and verify baseline symptomatic of this therapy. 167 patients with active RA were enrolled a 24-week TwHF treatment identified an open trial; then randomized clinical (RCT) for verification, 218 classified into predictor positive (P+) negative (P−) group randomly assigned accept Methotrexate Sulfasalazine combination (M&S) 24 weeks, respectively. Five (diuresis, excessive sweating, night sweats positive; yellow tongue-coating, thermalgia joints negative). In RCT, The ACR 20 responses 82.61% TwHF/P+ group, significantly higher than that TwHF/P− ( P = 0.0001) M&S/P+ < 0.05), but not M&S/P− group. Similar results yielded 50 70 response. No significant differences detected safety profiles among groups. enable more efficiently subpopulations.