Adult T-cell leukemia after immunosuppressive therapy for systemic lupus erythematosus

Clinical features and human T-cell leukemia virus type-1 (HTLV-1) proviral load in HTLV-1-positive patients with rheumatoid arthritis: Baseline data in a single center cohort study

Objective: Recently, Human T-cell leukemia virus type-1 proviral load (HTLV-1 PVL) has been evaluated as an important predictor of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) in HTLV-1 carriers. We aimed to evaluate whether HTLV-1 PVL is also important for the development of ATL among HTLV-1-positive patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).Methods: We established a cohort of 82 HTLV-1-positive RA patients between 2017 and 2018. Of those, 27 (32.9%) were treated with biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) with/without methotrexate. We measured HTLV-1 PVL in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) at study entry and compared the value by clinical status and treatment options.Results: The median PVL for all was 9.6 copies per 1000 PBMCs without sex difference (male 17.2 and female 8.6; p = .24). The median PVL was significantly higher for patient's comorbid bronchiectasis, malignancies, and opportunistic infectious diseases, compared with patients without comorbidity. There were no significant differences in PVL levels among types of bDMARDs, although the level was tended to be higher for patients treated with JAK inhibitor.Conclusions: HTLV-1 seropositive RA patients comorbid for any diseases having higher HTLV-1 PVLs will be a higher risk for developing ATL. Careful follow-up of these patients is necessary to detect ATL development.

Lupus nephritis class I accompanied by tubulointerstitial nephritis with marked T-lymphocyte infiltration in an HTLV-1 positive patient

We herein describe the case of a 40-year-old Japanese male who was admitted to our hospital because of a continuous remittent fever lasting 1 month. He fulfilled the items of the classification criteria for the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The administration of 20 mg per day of oral prednisolone completely diminished his clinical symptoms. However, his renal biopsy performed 1 day after the admission showed marked pathognomonic characteristics. Not only did his glomeruli show class I lupus nephritis with mesangial depositions of IgG, IgA, C3, and C1q, but also tubulointerstitial nephritis with marked T-lymphocyte infiltration. These infiltrated T cells partly had nuclear atypia. The patient was positive for human T cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) antibodies. Furthermore, clonal rearrangements of T cell receptor-gamma chain gene was detected in the DNA extracted from his kidney sections by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. A second renal biopsy 6 months after the prednisolone treatment showed that the infiltrating T lymphocytes had markedly diminished. This is the first case report of lupus nephritis class I with tubulointerstitial nephritis, which might include oncogenic T lymphocytes, in an HTLV-1 positive patient.

Newer developments in adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma therapeutics

INTRODUCTION

Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) is a rare disease with a unique geographic distribution. Conducting controlled randomized trials to assess the effective therapeutic strategies has therefore been a significant challenge to date.

AREAS COVERED

This review explores the natural history and diagnostic evaluation of ATL, followed by a focused review of existing studies on the most potent individual pharmaceutical agents and combinations used in the therapy of this malignancy. Readers will acquire considerable insights about the clinical subsets, diagnosis and the most effective therapies used in various ATL types.

EXPERT OPINION

International, multicenter, randomized clinical trials are essential to design optimal therapeutic strategies for various ATL subsets. It appears that patients with acute ATL type benefit considerably from the first-line combined antiviral therapy with zidovudine and interferon alpha, whereas patients with ATL of the lymphoma type may experience a better outcome with intensive chemotherapy. The role of therapy in smoldering and chronic disease types remains to be clarified. In addition, the results of allogeneic stem-cell transplantation in ATL appear promising, as up to 40% of patients who achieve remission and have suitable donors can now become long-term survivors. Prospective evaluation of novel effective agents and their incorporation into various therapeutic algorithms is stringently needed.