[Study on effect of Cordyceps sinensis and artemisinin in preventing recurrence of lupus nephritis].
OBJECTIVE
To observe the effect of Cordyceps sinensis and artemisinin in preventing recurrence of lupus nephritis (LN).


METHODS
Sixty-one LN patients, who had no activities by corticosterone and cyclophosphamide (CTX) impacting therapy were randomly divided into two groups. The 31 cases in the treated group were given Cordyceps powder 2-4 g/d before meal and artemisinin 0.6 g/d after meal in three portions orally taken for 3 years. The 30 patients in the control group were treated with tripterygiitotorum and/or Baoshenkang tablet. The consecutive observation lasted for 5 years to monitor the clinical manifestations of lupus and laboratory indexes including blood creatinine, creatinine clearance rate (CCr) and antinuclear antibodies (ANA).


RESULTS
The therapeutic effect showed markedly effective in 26 cases (83.9%), effective in 4 (12.9%) and ineffective in 1 (3.2%) in the treated group, while in the control group, the corresponding numbers were 15 (50.0%), 8 (26.7%) and 7 (23.3%), the difference between the two groups in markedly effective rate was significant (P < 0.01). In the treated group, C3 level was stabilized at above 1.21 +/- 0.20 g/L, which was over the normal range, CCr was unchanged as compared before and after treatment, which was significantly different from that in the control group. Moreover, the side-effects occurred in the treated group was less.


CONCLUSIONS
Cordyceps and artemisinin could prevent the recurrence of LN and protect kidney function.
Lu
Lan
L
Department of Nephrology, Second People's Hospital of Guilin, Guangxi 541004.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D037621:Artemisinins / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003176:Complement C3 / Q000378:metabolism; D032661:Cordyceps; D003404:Creatinine / Q000097:blood; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008181:Lupus Nephritis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008517:Phytotherapy; D055502:Secondary Prevention; D012717:Sesquiterpenes / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D037621:Artemisinins; D003176:Complement C3; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D012717:Sesquiterpenes; C031327:artemisinin; D003404:Creatinine