Non-classical phenotypes of autoimmune hepatitis and advances in diagnosis and treatment

Table 4 Therapeutic advances in autoimmune hepatitis

Advance	Nature	Attribute
Improved current therapy	Initial therapy until resolution of liver tests and tissue	Prevention of relapse after drug withdrawal[70]
	Long-term azathioprine therapy after relapse or incomplete response	Prevention of disease progression[7173125]
	Pretreatment vaccination for viruses	Protection against morbidity of concurrent viral infection[74]
New drugs	Calcineurin inhibitors (cyclosporine, tacrolimus)	Salvage therapy[150–157]
	Purine antagonists (6-mercaptopurine, mycophenolate)	Salvage therapy[161–166]
	Budesonide (combined with azathioprine)	Effective and safe front line therapy[75]
Potential molecular interventions	Synthetic blocking peptides	Block autoantigen presentation[186187]
	Cytokine manipulations	Promote anti-inflammatory effects[188]
	T cell vaccination	Eliminate cytotoxic liver-infiltrating clone[189]
	Oral tolerance (high or low dose regimen)	Reduce immune response (low dose) or induce anergy (high dose)[190191]
	Mesenchymal stem cells (human bone marrow-derived)	Replace damaged hepatocytes[200]