Serious infusion-related reaction after rituximab, abatacept and tocilizumab in rheumatoid arthritis: prospective registry data

Comparison of Adverse Events Among Home- vs Facility-Administered Biologic Infusions, 2007-2017

IMPORTANCE

Infusion reactions occur in 7% to 20% of patients receiving biologics. Home infusions are convenient and incur lower costs but may be associated with more adverse events; the safety of receiving biologic infusions for immune-mediated diseases at home remains unclear.

OBJECTIVE

To assess whether patients receiving home biologic infusions have increased adverse events requiring emergency department (ED) or hospital admission compared with patients receiving facility infusions.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

This retrospective cohort study used administrative claims data from a large national insurer for adult patients who received biologic infusions for immune-mediated disease between January 2007 and December 2017. Patients with hematologic malignant neoplasms or bone marrow transplantation were excluded. Data were analyzed from August 2019 to October 2020.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

ED or hospital admission on the same or next day after administration of a biologic infusion at home vs at a facility; secondary outcomes included discontinuation of the biologic after an ED or hospital admission and postinfusion mortality.

RESULTS

Of a total of 57 220 patients (mean [SD] age, 50.1 [14.8] years; 512 314 [68.1%] women) who received 752 150 biologic infusions (34 078 home infusions [4.5%] to 3954 patients and 718 072 facility infusions [95.5%] to 54 770 patients), patients who received home infusions were younger (mean [SD] age, 43.2 [13.2] vs 51.3 [14.8] years), more likely to be men (14 031 [41.2%] vs 225 668 [31.4%]), and had a lower Charlson comorbidity score compared with patients who received facility infusions (mean [SD] score, 0.5 [1.0] vs 1.1 [1.3]). Home infusions were associated with 25% increased odds of ED or hospital admission on the same or next day after the infusion (odds ratio [OR], 1.25; 95% CI, 1.09-1.44; P = .002) and 28% increased odds of discontinuation of the biologic after the ED or hospital admission (OR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.08-1.51; P = .005). There was no difference in postinfusion mortality between home or facility infusions. The rates of adverse events were highest with home infusions of tocilizumab (48 of 481 infusions [10.0%]), vedolizumab (150 of 2681 infusions [5.6%]), and infliximab (1085 of 20 653 infusions [5.3%]), although the number of tocilizumab and vedolizumab infusions was low.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

In this study, biologic infusions administered at home, compared with those administered at a facility, were associated with increased adverse events requiring escalation of care. Because the number of home infusions has increased and is expected to continue to rise, the safety implications of administering biologic infusions at home needs to be further assessed.

New Therapeutic Landscape in Neuromyelitis Optica

Purpose of review

This review discusses the current treatment trends and emerging therapeutic landscape for patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD).

Recent findings

Conventional immune suppressive therapies, such as B cell depletion, have been used for long-term treatment. However, the availability of recent FDA-approved and investigational drugs has made therapeutic choices for NMOSD more complex.

Summary

Recent randomized clinical trials have shown that eculizumab, inebilizumab, and satralizumab are efficacious therapies for AQP4 seropositive NMOSD. These therapies may not have the same benefit in patients with seronegative NMOSD, including MOG-associated disease, and further investigation is required in this population. Reliable biomarkers to guide therapy decisions are urgently needed. There is a plethora of promising investigational therapies currently in the pipeline with exciting and novel mechanisms of action.

Retrospective analyzes of adverse events during biologic agents in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis from a single center in Turkey

Objectives

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis is the most common rheumatic disease in childhood. Biologic agents have changed the course of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. However, there are concerns regarding the occurrence of serious adverse events in patients receiving biologic agents. The aim of this study was to evaluate adverse events in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis receiving biologic agents.

Material and methods

This retrospective study includes juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients receiving biologic agents. Demographic features and adverse events during biologic agents were collected from medical files. Adverse events that either resulted in death, were life-threatening, required inpatient hospitalization, or resulted in persistent or significant disability/incapacity were considered as serious adverse events.

Results

In total, 162 juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients (55.6% female) receiving biologic agents were enrolled: 101 (62.3%) patients treated with etanercept, 27 (16.7) with tocilizumab, 14 (8.6%) with adalimumab, 15 (9.2%) with anti-interleukin 1 agents (13 canakinumab, 2 anakinra), and 5 (3.1%) with infliximab. 75.9% of the patients received concomitantly disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, and 20.4% received disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs plus corticosteroid. The mean age at initiation of the biologic agent was 10.5 ±4.3 years. The mean age at the study enrolment was 12.1 ±4.5 years. The mean follow-up duration was 19.7 ±2.1 months. The most frequent adverse event was upper respiratory tract infections (54.3%) followed by urinary tract infections (21%). Anaphylaxis occurred in 3 patients (1.9%): 2 with tocilizumab and one with infliximab. Macrophage activation syndrome occurred in 1 patient (0.6%) receiving tocilizumab. Lung tuberculosis developed in 2 patients (1.2%) receiving canakinumab. The frequency of serious adverse events in total was 6.7%.

Conclusions

While the most frequent adverse events during biologic agents was upper respiratory tract infections, the frequency of serious adverse events was 6.7%; therefore, juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients receiving biologic agents should be carefully evaluated for these adverse events in clinical practice.

Immunogenicity of TNF-Inhibitors

Tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) have significantly improved treatment outcome of rheumatic diseases since their incorporation into treatment protocols two decades ago. Nevertheless, a substantial fraction of patients experiences either primary or secondary failure to TNFi due to ineffectiveness of the drug or adverse reactions. Secondary failure and adverse events can be related to the development of anti-drug antibodies (ADA). The earliest studies that reported ADA toward TNFi mainly used drug-sensitive assays. Retrospectively, we recognize this has led to an underestimation of the amount of ADA produced due to drug interference. Drug-tolerant ADA assays also detect ADA in the presence of drug, which has contributed to the currently reported higher incidence of ADA development. Comprehension and awareness of the assay format used for ADA detection is thus essential to interpret ADA measurements correctly. In addition, a concurrent drug level measurement is informative as it may provide insight in the extent of underestimation of ADA levels and improves understanding the clinical consequences of ADA formation. The clinical effects are dependent on the ratio between the amount of drug that is neutralized by ADA and the amount of unbound drug. Pharmacokinetic modeling might be useful in this context. The ADA response generally gives rise to high affinity IgG antibodies, but this response will differ between patients. Some patients will not reach the phase of affinity maturation while others generate an enduring high titer high affinity IgG response. This response can be transient in some patients, indicating a mechanism of tolerance induction or B-cell anergy. In this review several different aspects of the ADA response toward TNFi will be discussed. It will highlight the ADA assays, characteristics and regulation of the ADA response, impact of immunogenicity on the pharmacokinetics of TNFi, clinical implications of ADA formation, and possible mitigation strategies.

A comprehensive review of rituximab therapy in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Rituximab (RTX) is an approved treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients that do not respond adequately to disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. However, different new concerns, such as efficacy, optimum dose, safety issues, prediction of response to RTX, and pregnancy outcomes have attracted a lot of attention. The PubMed database was systematically reviewed for the last published articles, new findings, and controversial issues regarding RTX therapy in RA using "Rheumatoid arthritis" AND "rituximab" keywords, last updated on June 18, 2019. From 1812 initial recorders, 162 studies met the criteria. Regarding the optimum dose, low-dose RTX therapy (2 × 500 mg) seems as effective as standard dose (2 × 1000 mg), safer, and more cost-effective. The most common reported safety challenges included de novo infections, false negative serologic tests of viral infections, reactivation of chronic infections, interfering with vaccination outcome, and development of de novo psoriasis. Other less reported side effects are infusion reactions, nervous system disorders, and gastrointestinal disorders. Lower exposure to other biologics, presence of some serological markers (e.g., anti-RF, anti-CCP, IL-33, ESR), specific variations in FCGR3A, FCGR2A, TGFβ1, IL6, IRF5, BAFF genes, and also EBV-positivity could be used to predict response to RTX. Although there is no evidence of the teratogenic effect of RTX, it is recommended that women do not expose themselves to RTX at least 6 months before the conception. Only a reversible reduction of B cell-count in the offspring may be the pregnancy-related outcome. Although RTX is an effective therapeutic option for RA, more studies on optimum doses, prevention of RTX-related side effects, prediction of RTX response, and safety during the pregnancy are required.

Pemphigus: Current and Future Therapeutic Strategies

Pemphigus encompasses a heterogeneous group of autoimmune blistering diseases, which affect both mucous membranes and the skin. The disease usually runs a chronic-relapsing course, with a potentially devastating impact on the patients' quality of life. Pemphigus pathogenesis is related to IgG autoantibodies targeting various adhesion molecules in the epidermis, including desmoglein (Dsg) 1 and 3, major components of desmosomes. The pathogenic relevance of such autoantibodies has been largely demonstrated experimentally. IgG autoantibody binding to Dsg results in loss of epidermal keratinocyte adhesion, a phenomenon referred to as acantholysis. This in turn causes intra-epidermal blistering and the clinical appearance of flaccid blisters and erosions at involved sites. Since the advent of glucocorticoids, the overall prognosis of pemphigus has largely improved. However, mortality persists elevated, since long-term use of high dose corticosteroids and adjuvant steroid-sparing immunosuppressants portend a high risk of serious adverse events, especially infections. Recently, rituximab, a chimeric anti CD20 monoclonal antibody which induces B-cell depletion, has been shown to improve patients' survival, as early rituximab use results in higher disease remission rates, long term clinical response and faster prednisone tapering compared to conventional immunosuppressive therapies, leading to its approval as a first line therapy in pemphigus. Other anti B-cell therapies targeting B-cell receptor or downstream molecules are currently tried in clinical studies. More intriguingly, a preliminary study in a preclinical mouse model of pemphigus has shown promise regarding future therapeutic application of Chimeric Autoantibody Receptor T-cells engineered using Dsg domains to selectively target autoreactive B-cells. Conversely, previous studies from our group have demonstrated that B-cell depletion in pemphigus resulted in secondary impairment of T-cell function; this may account for the observed long-term remission following B-cell recovery in rituximab treated patients. Likewise, our data support the critical role of Dsg-specific T-cell clones in orchestrating the inflammatory response and B-cell activation in pemphigus. Monitoring autoreactive T-cells in patients may indeed provide further information on the role of these cells, and would be the starting point for designating therapies aimed at restoring the lost immune tolerance against Dsg. The present review focuses on current advances, unmet challenges and future perspectives of pemphigus management.

New insights and long-term safety of tocilizumab in rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is a leading musculoskeletal cause of disability in Western society. Therapeutic options have expanded rapidly with the advent of biological agents as treatment options. One of these, tocilizumab, targets the interleukin-6 receptor and has been approved since the late 2000s in many jurisdictions. This approval was based on 6-12 month trials. It is now appropriate to look at longer-term studies and what new insights they have provided into this agent. Data are based largely on observational studies with their well-known limitations as well as some further randomized trials and provide a number of important observations regarding both efficacy and safety. In conclusion, the longer-term data suggest tocilizumab efficacy increases over time for both signs and symptoms and radiographic change. It is also corticosteroid sparing. The safety data are consistent with the shorter-term trials and are largely reassuring but some questions still remain over cardiovascular safety and cancer risk.

Autoantibodies Associated With Connective Tissue Diseases: What Meaning for Clinicians?

Connective tissue diseases (CTDs) such as systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis, myositis, Sjögren's syndrome, and rheumatoid arthritis are systemic diseases which are often associated with a challenge in diagnosis. Autoantibodies (AAbs) can be detected in these diseases and help clinicians in their diagnosis. Actually, pathophysiology of these diseases is associated with the presence of antinuclear antibodies. In the last decades, many new antibodies were discovered, but their implication in pathogenesis of CTDs remains unclear. Furthermore, the classification of these AAbs is nowadays misused, as their targets can be localized outside of the nuclear compartment. Interestingly, in most cases, each antibody is associated with a specific phenotype in CTDs and therefore help in better defining either the disease subtypes or diseases activity and outcome. Because of recent progresses in their detection and in the comprehension of their pathogenesis implication in CTD-associated antibodies, clinicians should pay attention to the presence of these different AAbs to improve patient's management. In this review, we propose to focus on the different phenotypes and features associated with each autoantibody used in clinical practice in those CTDs.

Pediatric rheumatology infusion center: report on therapeutic protocols and infusions given over 4 Years with focus on adverse events over 1 Year

BACKGROUND

Children with chronic rheumatic disease often require intravenous (IV) therapy. Our center has instituted standardized protocols for use of IV medications in rheumatology patients. Herein, we introduce the therapeutic protocols and report on their short-term safety.

METHODS

This was an institutional review board (IRB) approved retrospective chart review of all patients who had received IV infusions between the years 2012 and 2015 at a single center, prescribed by a pediatric rheumatologist. Infusion medications included abatacept, belimumab, cyclophosphamide, immune globulin, infliximab, methylprednisolone, N-acetylcysteine, pamidronate disodium, rituximab, and tocilizumab. For calendar year 2015, all adverse infusions reactions were recorded along with treatment strategies used to manage them, and outcomes. Rates of adverse events were calculated per infusion medication.

RESULTS

During calendar years 2012-2015, 7585 IV infusions were administered to 398 unique patients. In the year 2015, 2187 infusions were administered to 224 patients, with 34 patients experiencing 41 infusion reactions (1.9% of all infusions). Rituximab had the highest rate of adverse drug reactions with 10 patients experiencing reactions during 106 infusions (9.4%). None of the reactions were life-threatening, and only 6 resulted in discontinuation of therapy.

CONCLUSIONS

In a recent 4-year span, the UAB Pediatric Rheumatology Infusion Center has given thousands of IV infusions with minimal adverse reactions over a one-year reporting period. The combination of standard infusion protocols, experience of and communication between physicians and nurses who staff the center, and safety of the medications themselves, allows for safe IV administration of a variety of therapies for pediatric rheumatology patients.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Not applicable; this was a retrospective study.