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META-ANALYSIS ON THE EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF BELIMUMAB FOR LUPUS NEPHRITIS BY USING THE PUBMED DATABASE

QIYUAN CHEN 1*, FANGZHOU GU 2, LI LIU 1

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Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune connective tissue disease associated with loss of immunological tolerance (LIT). Lupus nephritis (LN) is a serious manifestation of SLE, affecting the majority of patients and posing a significant threat to the well-being and survival of SLE patients. More research and evidence are needed to determine whether belimumab can be used to treat active LN, as data on the safety and efficacy of belimumab in the treatment of active LN are currently lacking. The search criteria utilised were “belimumab”, “lupus nephritis”, “systemic lupus erythematosus” and “lupus treatment”. The search was limited to articles published between January 2000 and May 2022. The analysis and evaluation were performed using Rev Man 5.3 and Stata, the risk of bias (RoB) of the included articles was assessed, and the heterogeneity was assessed using the Q-test and the I2 statistics. The results showed that in the 6 included references, the OR for efficacy of belimumab in the treatment of LN was 0.30, the OR for safety was 0.22, and no heterogeneity was observed between study groups (I2 = 0.00%; I2 = 0.00%). The OR for renal involvement of belimumab in the treatment of LN was -0.22, and the OR for complications was -0.37, indicating apparent heterogeneity (I2 = 54.46%; I2 = 30.79%). The heterogeneity gap was small, indicating credible results after further testing. Belimumab treatment was safer in LN, renal involvement was less severe in LN receiving belimumab treatment, and the likelihood of complications was lower in LN receiving belimumab treatment.