Plastomet (Methotrexate) Injection

Description

Description

This page contains brief details about the drug methotrexate, it’s indication, dosage & administaration, mechanism of action, related brands with strength, warnings and common side effects.

Date of Approval

Methotrexate is an anti-metabolite and immunosuppressant drug. The FDA approved this for its medical use on 26th February 1999.

Mechanism of Action of Methotrexate

Methotrexate inhibits dihydrofolic acid reductase. Therefore, methotrexate interferes with DNA synthesis, repair, and cellular replication. Actively proliferating tissues such as malignant cells, bone marrow, fetal cells, buccal and intestinal mucosa, and urinary bladder cells are, in general, more sensitive to this medicine. Blocking these slows down how fast cancer cells grow and spread. In treating rheumatoid arthritis, methotrexate is thought to stop or reduce inflammation in the joints by altering the body’s defense mechanism in the immune system.

Uses of Methotrexate

It treats certain types of cancer, such as acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), meningeal leukemia, non-hodgkin’s lymphoma, osteosarcoma, cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, breast cancer, and head and neck cancer in adults. It is also used to treat severe psoriasis in adults (a skin disease in which red, scaly patches form on some body areas). It is also indicated to treat rheumatoid arthritis in adults.

Methotrexate Dosage available

Methotrexate is available as an injection and tablet. Always use this medicine as exactly prescribed by your doctor. Depending on the condition being treated, your physician decides the dose, dosage, and frequency of this injection. Methotrexate is injected into a vein (intravenously) or into muscle (intramuscularly). Do not self-administer this medicine.

If you are prescribed with tablets, do not chew, crush or dissolve the tablets. The score line is only there to help you break the tablet if you have difficulty swallowing it whole.  Swallow the tablets whole with water.