Denosumab in the treatment on structural damage caused by rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory joint disease, which can cause cartilage and bone damage as well as disability. The effects of denosumab in patients with RA have been analyzed in several clinical studies. These results provide strong evidence to suggest that denosumab significantly inhibited the progression of bone erosion, increased BMD in patients with RA. We undertook a meta-analysis to summarize the efficacy and safety of denosumab in the treatment on structural damage caused by rheumatoid arthritis.Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, Medline, The Cochrane Library, and collected randomized controlled trials of denosumab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis from the database was established until January 19, 2021.Literature was screened according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, and RevMan 5.3 software was used for Meta-analysis after quality assessment.Results: Five eligible studies were included in the primary meta-analysis. Denosumab significantly inhibited the increase of the modified Sharp erosion score(MD=-0.62, 95%CI＝-0.91～-0.33,P＜0.0001)、modified total Sharp score(MD=-0.78, 95%CI＝1.23～-0.33,P=0.0007)compared to placebo groups at 12 months. In addition, denosumab also significantly increased lumbar spine BMD (3.73, 95% CI 2.00, 5.46, P<0.0001) compared to placebo or bisphosphonates. There was no evidence of an effect of denosumab on joint space narrowing. Adverse events, serious adverse events were similar between denosumab and placebo arms.Conclusion: Results suggest that denosumab inhibits the progression of structural damage caused by rheumatoid arthritis, with no increase in the rates of adverse events as compared with control group. Preliminary research suggests that denosumab is reasonable and promising options for preventing and treating structural destruction in rheumatoid arthritis.Trial registration: We registered our study with PROSPERO (registration number CRD42021239783); no other meta-analysis focusing on denosumab use for structural damage caused by rheumatoid arthritis were found in the PROSPERO database.