Treatment of young patients with lupus nephritis using calcineurin inhibitors

Table 1 Published reports of calcineurin inhibitor therapy in pediatric-onset lupus nephritis

Authors (Ref.)	Drugs	Cases	Nephritis class	Dose of the drug	Follow-up period	Efficacy	Adverse effects
Sakano et al[30]	CsA	1	WHO class V	1.6 mg/kg with the 4 h area under the time concentration curve of the drug 554.5 ng × h/mL	12 mo	SLEDAI depression, Serological improvement and concomitantly administered PDN reduction	None
Baca et al[31]	CsA	7	WHO class IV and V	1.5-3 mg/kg with a mean trough blood level of the drug 57.1 ng/mL	12 mo	SLEDAI depression and urinary protein excretion decrease	Hypertension, hypertrichosis and mild gingival hyperplasia
Suzuki et al[19]	CsA	1	WHO class III	1.8 mg/kg with area under the time concentration curve of the drug approximately 2000 ng × h/mL	3 mo	Serological improvement and concomitantly administered PDN reduction	None
Kawasaki et al[33]	CsA	1	WHO class IV	2-2.5 mg/kg with trough blood level of the drug 60-75 ng/mL	24 mo	Histological improvement (WHO class II) and extrarenal signs improvement	Hirsutism
Aragon et al[32]	CsA	13	WHO class III and IV	3-6 mg/kg with trough blood level of the drug, 100-200 ng/mL	12 mo	SLEDAI depression, Serological improvement and urinary protein excretion decreases	Minor infections and herpes zoster
Tanaka et al[20]	Tac	6	WHO class II, IV and V	3 mg/d with trough blood level of approximately 5 ng/mL	6 mo	ECLAM depression, Serological improvement and concomitantly administered PDN reduction	None
Tanaka et al[21]	Tac	11	WHO class II, IV and V	3 mg/d with trough blood level of approximately 5 ng/mL	Up to 24 mo	ECLAM depression, Serological improvement and concomitantly administered PDN reduction	Minor infections and herpes zoster

CsA: Cyclosporine A; Tac: Tacrolimus; WHO: World Health Organization; PDN: Prednisolone; SLEDAI: Systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index; ECLAM: European consensus of lupus activity measurement index.