Integrative therapy of traditional Chinese medicine and conventional medicine in the treatment of lupus nephritis from a single-center experience

Lupus nephritis (LN) is the most common complication of systemic lupus erythematosus and the leading cause of mortality. The complex pathogenesis and various clinical manifestations of this disease increase the difficulty of the treatments. The current treatments with Western medicine including glucocorticoids, mycophenolate mofetil and other immunosuppressants, and biological agents have greatly improved the patients' survival. However, frequent recurrence occurred and LN remained an important cause of end stage renal disease. The increasing adverse effects with the prolongation of treatment also restrained the efficacy of Western medicine. Increasing evidence has demonstrated the therapeutic efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) which provides a theoretical basis for the integrative therapy of TCM and Western medicine for LN. We previously established a unique comprehensive treatment strategy for LN with the combination of TCM and Western medicine based on the TCM theory and achieved good clinical efficacy. This review will summarize the single-center experience that integrative therapy of TCM, represented by Lupus Recipe and artesunate, and Western medicine for LN treatment, and elucidate the potential mechanism, with the purpose to provide reliable evidence for developing more effective personalized treatment strategies in the future.