Nephrotic syndrome in the course of treatment of Wilson's disease with DL-penicillamine

Advances in Treatment of Wilson Disease

Background

Wilson disease (WD) is an inherited neurometabolic disorder that results in excessive copper deposition in the liver and the brain, affecting children and young adults. Without treatment the disease is invariably fatal. Though treatments for WD have been available since the 1950s, the disease continues to be associated with considerable morbidity and mortality because of missed diagnosis, and delayed or inadequate treatment. In this paper we survey WD-related literature in order to review recent advances in WD treatment.

Methods

We performed a literature search using the PubMed database for articles relating to WD and its medical treatment. We reviewed the articles, and cross-references of relevant articles, to summarize the current practices for treatment of WD.

Results

The survey shows that if WD is properly treated, in most patients the liver can be stabilized, even severe neurological disability reversed, and patients can resume normal lives.

Discussion

Medical treatment for WD includes use of copper chelators (penicillamine, trientine, dimercaprol, dimercaptopropane sulfonate, and ammonium tetrathiomolybdate) and drugs that decrease gastrointestinal copper absorption. Our knowledge of the treatment approaches has benefited from the large systematic clinical studies that have been conducted over the last decade. For each drug used to treat WD, we surveyed its development, indication for use, dosing, efficacy, and adverse effects.

Nephrotic syndrome induced by D-penicillamine therapy

The paper presents a female patient in whom the penicillamine therapy for aggressive hepatitis triggered off the development of nephrotic syndrome. Histological findings revealed membranous glomerulonephritis. After the withdrawal of penicillamine therapy, the laboratory results returned to normal. The authors concluded that penicillamine should only be administered in conditions in which other means of therapy prove inefficient (i.e. Wilson's disease, cystinuria associated with calculi).

[Nephrotic syndrome presumable caused by an complex glomerulonephritis (author's transl)]

The nephrotic syndrome presumably caused by an immune complex glomerulonephritis constitutes a major side effect attendant upon chronic administration of penicillamine. The possible induction of an immune-complex glomerulonephritis by penicillamine and its further development after stopping the drug was investigated in rats. --60 rats were fed perorally 2000 mg D-Penicillamine/kg BW/die resp. for a period of 8--44 days. Following unilateral nephrectomy the animals were observed for further 5 weeks. --Dependent to the time of penicillamine application there was an increasing deposition of IgG and C3 in a granular pattern along the glomerular basement membrane and within the mesangium. The IgG deposits initially were focal and segmental later on diffuse and global in distribution. 5 weeks after stopping the penicillamine the immune globulin deposits had disappeared completely or at least in part as did the mild focal glomerulonephritis and the moderate proteinuria which developed in some animals after a 44 day treatment with penicillamine. --The results confirm the hitherto presumed immune complex pathogenesis of the penicillamine induced nephropathy. The disappearance of the immunoglobulins deposited and of proteinuria stopping penicillamine alludes the good prognosis of this kind of nephropathy.