Dhafer Ahmed Alshehri , Haifa Mansour Alturki , Faisal Theeb Al-Qahtani , Abdulrauf Abdulatif A Tashkandi , Qamar Adel Fallatah , Jullanar Nashat Daiwaly , Bandar Aedh Alyami , Huda Oawid Hedmool Alanzi , Njood Abdulsalam Ali Alharbi , Noura Adel Gouharji , Nawaf Fahad Abdullah Altowairqi

Abstract

An autoimmune disease called the idiopathic membranous nephropathy is a glomerular disease which affects the adult population and leads to nephrotic syndrome. Although one-third of affected patients have spontaneous remission and proteinuria resolution with only supportive management, almost one-third evolved to end-stage renal disease and required hemodialysis. Several agents have been used to treat membranous nephropathy in addition to corticosteroids; some cases developed serious adverse events and required omission of therapy. A monoclonal antibody which is Rituximab works by deleting certain cells i,e CD20 B cells, which are the main pathogenic factors in this condition, and have been used to treat this disease. This narrative review aims to review the idiopathic membranous nephropathy and the role of rituximab in this condition in terms of efficacy and safety. A relevant article to the topic was selected through the PubMed database. We used the following Mesh terms: Membranous nephropathy, nephrotic syndrome, rituximab. Rituximab therapy proved its significant efficacy and safety in idiopathic membranous nephropathy patients. It induced and maintained partial or complete remission variably, with minimal and infusion-related adverse outcomes. Nonetheless, few serious adverse events have been reported secondary to rituximab therapy, which may need further randomized clinical trials to assess the safety profile of rituximab.