Mycophenolate mofetil and erythromycin for bullous lupus erythematosus of childhood.

Background: Bullous lupus erythematosus is a rare disease that is extremely rare in childhood (with only seven previous reports) and difficult to control.

Objective: Herein is presented the youngest patient reported with this condition, and a novel, safe, and effective treatment regimen is described.

Methods: Through study, perseverance, serendipity, and creativity, a safe and effective regimen was developed.

Results: The combination of mycophenolate mofetil and erythromycin (plus sun protection) was found to be efficacious.

Conclusion: It is proposed that the two medications act synergistically, with the "antibiotic" acting as a antiinflammatory agent, but at a different point in the inflammatory cascade than mycophenolate mofetil. This suggests the approach of using common, inexpensive, and benign antibiotics to potentiate, and perhaps decrease the use of, immunomodulatory agents in autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases.