Eculizumab for the treatment of preeclampsia/HELLP syndrome

[sam10]

"...patient presenting with severe preeclampsia/HELLP syndrome at 26 weeks gestation that was treated with Eculizumab, a targeted inhibitor of complement protein C5, which resulted in marked clinical improvement and complete normalization of lab parameters. Pregnancy was prolonged 17 days, likely resulting in a reduction of neonatal morbidity with its associated short and long-term health care costs. Successful use of Eculizumab in this case suggests that complement inhi- bition may be an effective treatment strategy for severe preeclampsia/HELLP syndrome."

article in press as: Burwick RM, Feinberg BB, Eculizumab for the treatment of preeclampsia/HELLP syndrome, Placenta (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2012.11.014

[rosalinda]

Caryn,

Is this available in the US? Have you heard of this before?

[sam10]

The treatment described was done in the US. I am not sure if it is currently available, but I can try to find out.

[caryn]

This was a case study in Boston, but I'm not sure how the use got approved or what the guidelines/ timeline would be for it to be used in HELLP patients. I suspect that it was used under "compassionate care" guidelines - which is essentially where they decide we're so sick that there's no further harm from throwing the kitchen sink at us in quiet desperation!

Here's another article: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/739513

As I understand it, this would be for the subset of women with lupus or APS who have a particular mutation in a gene that codes for a complement factor. That means a subset of us who get PE?HELLP because of genetic autoimmune conditions. "Complement factors" are responsible for the innate immune response to foreign proteins: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complement_system

I'll keep an eye out and see what else this research stream produces!