How Does CellCept Work for Minimal Change Disease (MCD)

CellCept is one type of immunosuppressive agents that are often used to treat minimal change disease (MCD), a common cause of Nephrotic Syndrome. Most patients can get complete remission with the help of CellCept, while some other patients have more than one recurrence. How does CellCept work for minimal change disease? Are there effective alternative therapies for MCD?

CellCept for minimal change disease

It is reported that children have a high incidence of MCD that the adults, and generally, the younger patient is, the better his prognosis. As for medicines, steroids are first used to remit MCD patients’ condition. Here, we must affirm that steroids such as prednisone indeed have a quick and obvious effect of easing these patients’ condition especially when they have a heavy loss of protein in their urine. However, some patients can’t get remission only with the help of steroids, so some immunosuppressive agents such as CellCept are prescribed for these patients to help ease their symptoms.

If CellCept can make patients to get remission within the first 2 weeks, they should also take small dose of this medicine for another 6 weeks to avoid recurrence. However, in some cases, patients fail to respond to steroid and CellCept. In addition, CellCept is more likely to cause some side effects such as high blood pressure, bloody urine, swelling, difficult breathing, infections, etc. These side effects also urge patients to find some other therapies.

Alternative therapies for MCD

According to clinical research, the root cause of MCD is the damage to blood vessels in the tiny kidney filters, glomeruli, so the most effective treatments should be the one that can increase these cells’ self-curative ability. As we know, kidney cells have some certain self-curative ability. For mild kidney damage, they can rely on their own ability to repair it. If kidney cells’ ability is improved, they can repair these slight damage in glomeruli successfully.

Different patients need different treatment. Tell the kidney experts your medical condition in detail, so they can help you make a correct treatment plan.