Corticosteroids autoimmune inflammatory disease

Topical corticosteroids are most useful in inflammatory dermatoses, such as eczematous dermatitis and psoriasis they may also be helpful in other skin diseases that have a prominent inflammatory component, such as autoimmune blistering diseases (e.g., bullous pemphigoid and pemphigus vulgaris) and lupus erythematosus. 

Although corticosteroids possess immunosuppressive properties, their real value is in controlling the inflammation that can accompany transplantation and autoimmune disorders. Virtually all phases of the inflammatory process are affected by these drugs. Corticosteroid therapy alone is successful in only a limited number of autoimmune diseases, such as idiopathic thrombocytopenia, hemolytic anemia, and polymyalgia rheumatica. 

Osteoporosis is also common in those on long-term corticosteroid therapy (for example patients with autoimmune hepatitis or coexisting inflammatory bowel disease). Patients with chronic liver disease may also have other risk factors for osteoporosis related to their disease state. These include vitamin D deficiency, excessive alcohol consumption, poor diet, physical inactivity and low body mass index. Oestrogen deficiency in the postmenopausal stage further increases the risk. 

Te use of NSAIDS and other anti-inflammatory therapies are similar to those used in other autoimmune arthritic disorders. Corticosteroid injections for severe pain and inflammation at specific joints are standard therapy. For severe forms of the disease immunomoduladng and-rheumatic drugs such as methodexate and sulfasalazine are effecdve. As with other similar disorders, the biologic TNF a inhibitors are currently prescribed for severe Reiter s synchome. 

The role of both T and B lymphocytes in a variety of disease states beyond transplantation has become increasingly important in the past decade. This is especially true of those diseases frequently referred to as autoimmune in their etiology, such as rheumatoid arthritis, nephrotic syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, inflammatory bowel disease, and so on. In addition, several other major diseases are also known to have a component of T- or B-cell-mediated pathogenesis, for example, atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, and asthma. Until very recently, the mainstay of therapy for these diseases was the corticosteroids, which were often less than satisfactory in efficacy and often associated with undesirable side effects, especially in growing children and the elderly. Thus, the search for new agents with different mechanisms of action and which did not have the same adverse event profile as conventional corticosteroids led to the subsequent evaluation of drugs such as tacrolimus and sirolimus to treat several of these diseases. 

Corticosteroids. Corticosteroids are immunosuppressant drugs which have had beneficial effects in autoimmune chronic active hepatitis. They were investigated for the treatment of ehronic aetive hepatitis B (183-185), resulting in increased HBV replication, membrane expression of viral antigen, and delayed HBeAg seroconversion (132, 186). Stopping steroid treatment usually leads to a rebound in hepatic disease activity but may be followed by termination of viral replication within a few months (187). Thus, despite the decrease in transaminase activity, corticosteroids have little role in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B. However, corticosteroids may be useful for pretreatment of certain patients prior to interferon therapy (188) or for enhaneing the efficacy of interferon or adenine arabinoside (ARA-A) treatment by prior steroid withdrawal in patients with mild inflammatory activity (189). 

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