Medjeral-Thomas NR, Lawrence C, Condon M, et al. - By performing this multicenter, prospective, open-label, randomized, controlled trial, researchers tested the effectiveness of tacrolimus monotherapy without corticosteroids for the management of de novo minimal change disease. From six nephrology units across the United Kingdom, they recruited adult patients with first presentation of minimal change disease and nephrotic syndrome. These patients were randomly assigned to receive either oral tacrolimus at 0.05 mg/kg twice daily, or prednisolone at 1 mg/kg daily up to 60 mg daily. Complete remission of nephrotic syndrome following 8 weeks of treatment was the primary outcome. They found that tacrolimus and prednisolone treatment cohorts did not differ significantly in terms of the proportion of patients in complete remission at 8 weeks, 16 weeks, or 26 weeks. Based on the findings, experts concluded that tacrolimus monotherapy can afford an effective alternative option to treat patients wanting to avoid steroid treatment for minimal change disease.