Telitacicept beneficial in childhood-onset SLE

In the management of patients with childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (cSLE), combining telitacicept with standard of care (SoC) appears to reduce disease activity, steroid exposure, and immunological marker concentrations, effects comparable to those observed with belimumab, according to a study.

The study was conducted in China and included 60 patients aged 5–18 years who had cSLE and received treatment with telitacicept. These patients were propensity-score matched with a historical control of 67 cSLE patients treated with belimumab.

The primary endpoints included the Lupus Low Disease Activity State (LLDAS) and DORIS responses at 3, 6, and 12 months after treatment. Relapse rates and steroid tapering metrics were also evaluated.

Over a median follow-up 12 months, the number of patients who achieved LLDAS with telitacicept increased progressively from 19.6 percent at 6 months to 65.7 percent at 12 months. Similarly, the number of patients who met the criteria for DORIS response jumped from 7.8 percent at 6 months to 37.1 percent at 12 months.

Flare rates remained low, at 1.7 percent at 3 months, 11.8 percent at 6 months, and 14.3 percent at 12 months. By 12 months, 74.3 percent of patients had reduced their prednisone doses to ≤7.5 mg/day, as opposed to only 13.3 percent at baseline (p<0.0001).

In inverse probability of treatment weighting-adjusted analyses, the efficacy of telitacicept was found to be comparable to that of belimumab in terms of LLDAS/DORIS responses, steroid dose reduction, and immunological normalization (p>0.05 for all).