Objective: The long-term sequelae of methotrexate (MTX) remain the major cause of concern for both patients and therapists. Therefore, new approaches to decrease MTX side effects are needed. The study was carried out to evaluate the effects of Iris songarica Schrenk (IS) rhizome extract against MTX-induced hepatic and renal injuries in rats. Materials and...

OBJECTIVES To assess the efficacy and safety of certolizumab pegol (CZP)+dose-optimised methotrexate (MTX) versus placebo (PBO)+dose-optimised MTX in inducing and sustaining clinical remission in DMARD-naïve patients with moderate-to-severe, active, progressive rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with poor prognostic factors over 52 weeks. METHODS DMARD-naïve patients with ≤1 year of active RA were ra...

OBJECTIVE To compare the benefits of initiating treatment with methotrexate (MTX) and infliximab (anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha [anti-TNFalpha] monoclonal antibody) with those of MTX treatment alone in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) of < or =3 years' duration. METHODS RA patients were eligible if they had active disease and no prior treatment with MTX or a TNFalpha inhibitor. One ...

OBJECTIVE Methotrexate (MTX) is the most commonly used disease-modifying antirheumatic drug in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). Currently, individual response to MTX cannot be reliably predicted. Identification of clinical and genetic factors that influence the response to MTX could be helpful in realizing the optimal treatment for individual patients. METHODS A cohort of 128 JIA patients...

OBJECTIVES Rituximab is an effective treatment in patients with established rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The objective of the IMAGE study was to determine the efficacy of rituximab in the prevention of joint damage and its safety in combination with methotrexate (MTX) in patients initiating treatment with MTX. METHODS In this double-blind randomised controlled phase III study, 755 MTX-naïve pat...

The pharmacokinetics of methotrexate (MTX) and 7-hydroxymethotrexate (7-OH-MTX) in bile, urine, and serum was studied in rats in vivo after short-time infusions of 10, 50, 250, and 1000 mg/kg MTX. All animals were anesthetized and drained of bile during experiments. The biliary secretion rate of MTX approached saturation when serum MTX levels surpassed 700-800 microM, causing a significant redu...

A new sensitive, simple and rapid method for determination of methotrexate (MTX) was developed based on quenching effects of MTX on the fluorescence intensity of Tb3+-1,10-phenanthroline complex. The fluorescence intensity was measured with excitation wavelength of 300 nm and emission wavelength of 545 nm and the quenched fluorescence intensity is proportional to the concentration of MTX in Tris...

OBJECTIVE Recently, new treatment options for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with an inadequate response to methotrexate (MTX) have become available. Given the wide variability in efficacy and costs among these different treatment options, we sought to determine their cost-effectiveness (CE) in order to guide policy in different cost-constrained settings. METHODS We performed a CE analysi...

Methotrexate (MTX) is a key agent for the treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Increased MTX plasma concentrations are associated with a higher risk of adverse drug effects. ATP-binding cassette subfamily C member 2 (ABCC2) is important for excretion of MTX and its toxic metabolite. The ABCC2 -24C>T polymorphism (rs717620) reportedly contributes to variability of MTX kinet...

Purpose: Methotrexate (MTX) is prescribed in many diseases and can result in oxidative stress (OS) followed by injuries in some tissues. Antioxidants administration are effective in reducing OS. Pomegranate exhibits high anti-oxidant capacities. This study investigated whether pomegranate seed and peel methanolic extracts (PSE and PPE) could protect against MTX-induced OS and lipid profile chan...