By: GoutPal

GoutPal — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 07:31:48 +0000

I've just been reminded about a study called Safety and Efficacy Of Rasburicase in Patients with Tophaceous Gout and Intolerant or Unresponsive to Allopurinol, presented at the ACR conference last year. I didn't include it in my review in my December 2006 Newsletter, as I didn't feel that rasburicase would become a mainstream gout treatment. The study covered 10 patients who could not tolerate allopurinol, or found it ineffective. It concluded that rasburicase was generally safe and well tolerated and uric acid levels were substantially reduced after 6 months. My reminder about this study came in the form of Terkeltaub's review of American College of Rheumatology' 70th Annual Meeting. In his Update on Crystal-Induced Arthritis he notes

However, PEGylated recombinant uricase preparations, currently under evaluation in clinical trials, are theoretically advantageous due to the higher immunogenicity of rasburicase, which not only may predispose to potentially severe anaphylactic reactions, but also neutralizing antibodies that can interfere with sustained clinical efficacy.

I think this means that Puricase is better because your immune system can attack rasburicase, possibly leading to an extreme allergic reaction, which might stop it working.

Comments on: Rasburicase and Gout

By: GoutPal