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CASE REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Nephrology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1571616
Telitacicept Monotherapy for Refractory Idiopathic Membranous Nephropathy: A Case Report and Literature Review
Provisionally accepted- 1 Shaoxing Second Hospital, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, China
- 2 Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China
Background: Patients with refractory membranous nephropathy (MN) face risks of progressive renal decline and end-stage renal disease (ESRD), with limited treatment efficacy. Telitacicept, a novel humanized recombinant fusion protein effective in lupus nephritis and immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN), has few reports on its use in refractory MN.In May 2023, an 82-year-old man was admitted to Shaoxing Second Hospital with bilateral lower extremity edema. A renal biopsy confirmed idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN). Standard therapies, including glucocorticoids (GC), cyclophosphamide (CYC), tacrolimus (TAC), and rituximab (RTX), were ineffective. He developed steroid-induced diabetes and acute renal failure during treatment. Complete proteinuria remission was achieved with telitacicept monotherapy. The patient is under ongoing clinical follow-up.Telitacicept holds promise as a potential second-line therapy for refractory MN when conventional treatments prove ineffective. However, due to the current lack of robust evidence supporting its use in IMN, further research is warranted to establish its clinical efficacy and safety.
Keywords: Telitacicept, Refractory Idiopathic Membranous Nephropathy, PLA2R, case report, literature review
Received: 05 Feb 2025; Accepted: 21 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Huang and Qu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Zhongjie Qu, Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China
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