JAK inhibitors for the treatment of VEXAS syndrome.

Vacuoles, E1 enzyme, X-linked, autoinflammatory, somatic (VEXAS) syndrome is a novel described autoinflammatory entity for which the diagnosis is defined by somatic mutations of the UBA1 X-linked gene in hematopoietic progenitor cells. The clinical manifestations are heterogeneous since they range from autoinflammatory symptoms to the presence of underlying hematologic disorders such as myelodysplastic syndromes. Response to treatment in VEXAS is very poor and to date, the therapeutic strategies adopted are only partially effective. However, recently described cohorts of subjects with VEXAS treated with Janus kinase inhibitors (JAK-I) proved that these drugs can be effective in the treatment of several manifestations related to the disease. Herein, we carried out a brief literature review that includes cohorts and single cases in which JAK-I were adopted as a promising strategy to manage VEXAS patients. Subsequently, we described our experience with JAK-I in VEXAS, illustrating the first case, to our knowledge, of a 65-year-old man who was successfully treated with the selective JAK-1 inhibitor filgotinib.

Higher body mass index is associated with a lower iloprost infusion rate tolerance and higher iloprost-related adverse events in patients with systemic sclerosis.

Background: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disease characterized by vasospasm and microvascular involvement. Iloprost (ILO), a prostaglandin analogous, is used for the treatment of SSc-related Raynaud's phenomenon and digital ulcers. The suggested dose is 0.5-2 ng/kg/min for 6-8 h, and the maximum dose is decided upon the patient's tolerance. Objectives: This study aims to analyze ILO infusion tolerance and possible predictive factors in patients with SSc. Design: This is a retrospective observational study. Method: We evaluated 113 patients with SSc beginning ILO intravenous (IV) infusion treatment between 2004 and 2021. We assessed the maximum tolerated ILO IV infusion rate, the incidence of adverse events (AEs), and the need for symptomatic therapy during the dose-finding sessions. We collected relevant demographic and medical and employed generalized linear models to assess possible predictors of maximum tolerated ILO infusion rate and AEs and logistic regression to assess predictors of AEs. Results: The median ILO infusion rate at the end of the dose-finding process was 0.88 ng/kg/min [interquartile range (IQR) = 0.37]. We found a significant inverse correlation between ILO infusion rate and body mass index (BMI) at the beginning of treatment. BMI was negatively associated with ILO infusion rate (ß = -0.21, p = 0.02) after correction for relevant confounding factors. Overweight patients (BMI >26) presented a 13-fold increased risk of developing AEs during ILO titration [adjusted odds ratio = 13.979, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.359-82.845]. AEs during ILO titration occurred in 47.8% of patients, of whom 22.2% presented hypotension. Other AEs were headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and edema. Symptomatic therapy was needed in half of the patients at least once. Conclusion: This study showed that higher BMI was statistically associated with lower ILO infusion rate tolerance and higher AEs rate, underlying a possible BMI-dependent endothelial dysfunction. Individual ILO regimens still need to be tailored to the patient. Plain Language Summary: Introduction: Systemic sclerosis is a rare a rheumatic disease characterized by skin thickening, vasospasm, and digital ulcers (DUs), as well as other organs involvement. Iloprost, which is administered as intravenous infusion, is one of the main treatments for this disease, and it is effective in reducing vasospasm and the frequency of DUs. Even if there is a suggested dose range, the exact dose must be tailored on each patient, because the tolerance to the drug is variable. Tolerance is limited by dose-dependent unwanted effects, as headache, low blood pressure, dizziness, and sickness. This study aimed to identify possible predictors of such tolerance.Materials and Methods: We collected data from our patients with systemic sclerosis beginning the treatment with iloprost between January 2004 and November 2021 at our hospital facility in Verona, Italy, and analyzed different factors that could be associated with a better tolerance, as age, sex, disease duration, smoking habit, body mass index (a measure of body fatness), blood pressure, concomitant medications, and different patterns of the disease.Results: We found that a higher body mass index was associated with lower iloprost tolerance and higher adverse events rate in patients with systemic sclerosis, while we did not find a correlation with other factors. We believe overweight and obese patients (who have a higher body mass index) have a defect in the vasodilatation mechanism and can therefore be more susceptible to the effect of this medication.Conclusions: While preliminary, our results could provide a good starting point to develop a predictive tool to limit adverse events during this therapy.

The Emerging Roles of Endocrine Hormones in Different Arthritic Disorders.

The relationship between endocrine hormones and the spectrum of rheumatic conditions has long been discussed in the literature, focusing primarily on sexual hormones, such as estrogens, androgens, prolactin (PRL). Estrogens are indeed involved in the pathogenesis of the main inflammatory arthritis thanks to their effects on the immune system, both stimulatory and inhibitory. The PRL system has been discovered in synovial tissue of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA), patients and has been propose as a new potential therapeutic target. Besides sexual hormones, in the last years scientific interest about the crosstalk of immune system with other class of hormones has grown. Hormones acting on the bone tissue (i.e. parathyroid hormone, vitamin D) and modulators of the Wnt pathway (i.e. Dickkopf-1) have been demonstrated to play active role in inflammatory arthritis course, defining a new field of research named osteoimmunology. PTH, which is one of the main determinants of Dkkopf-1, plays a crucial role in bone erosions in RA and a correlation between PTH, Trabecular Bone Score (TBS) and disease activity has been found in ankylosing spondylitis (AS). In PSA is under studying the interaction among IL-17 and bone metabolism. The purpose of this review is to discuss and summarize the recent data about the interaction between endocrine hormone and immune system in the main rheumatic disorders, covering in particular the role of bone-related hormones and cytokines. We will describe this relationship from a biochemical, diagnostic and therapeutic perspective, with a particular focus on RA, PsA and AS.

Factors associated with referral for osteoporosis care in men: a real-life study of a nationwide dataset.

In the present observational cohort study in 4902 men and 9804 women, we found that the factors associated with osteoporosis care utilization in men were comorbidities, adjuvant hormonal therapy for prostate cancer, vertebral or hip fractures, and glucocorticoid treatment. INTRODUCTION: Male osteoporosis is associated with an important clinical and economic burden worldwide; nevertheless, undertreatment of men with osteoporosis is common. Understanding the factors associated with referral to bone specialists may help to define future interventions to improve access to osteoporosis care for male patients. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of a nationwide cohort (DeFRACalc79 database). DeFRACalc79 is a tool that estimates the fracture risk by considering clinical and densitometric risk factors, including the presence of prior hip or vertebral and non-vertebral or non-hip fractures. We compared the clinical characteristics of male individuals with an age-matched cohort of women. Propensity score generation with a 2:1 female-to-male ratio was performed using a logistic regression model to age-match the cohorts. RESULTS: We analyzed a sample of 4902 men at high risk for osteoporosis. We found that the factors associated with osteoporosis care utilization in men were the presence of comorbidities (OR 1.939, 95% CI 1.799-2.090), adjuvant hormonal therapy for prostate cancer (OR 1.482, 95% CI 1.315-1.670), the presence of vertebral or hip fractures (OR 1.490, 95% CI 1.378-1.611), and glucocorticoid treatment (OR 2.573, 95% CI 2.274-2.832). CONCLUSIONS: Men are more commonly referred to the bone specialist with a prevalent fragility fracture and/or diagnosis of secondary osteoporosis as compared with women. Our study suggests that there is a lack of screening for the primary prevention of osteoporosis in men as compared with that in women.

The clinical phenotype of systemic sclerosis patients with anti-PM/Scl antibodies: results from the EUSTAR cohort.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate clinical associations of anti-PM/Scl antibodies in patients with SSc in a multicentre international cohort, with particular focus on unresolved issues, including scleroderma renal crisis (RC), malignancies, and functional outcome of interstitial lung disease (ILD). METHODS: (1) Analysis of SSc patients from the EUSTAR database: 144 anti-PM/Scl+ without SSc-specific autoantibodies were compared with 7202 anti-PM/Scl-, and then to 155 anti-Pm/Scl+ with SSc-specific antibodies. (2) Case-control study: additional data were collected for 165 anti-PM/Scl+ SSc patients (85 from the EUSTAR registry) and compared with 257 anti-PM/Scl- SSc controls, matched for sex, cutaneous subset, disease duration and age at SSc onset. RESULTS: Patients with isolated anti-PM/Scl+, as compared with anti-Pm/Scl-, had higher frequency of muscle involvement, ILD, calcinosis and cutaneous signs of DM, but similar frequency of SRC and malignancies (either synchronous with SSc onset or not). The presence of muscle involvement was associated with a more severe disease phenotype. Although very frequent, ILD had a better functional outcome in cases than in controls. In patients with both anti-PM/Scl and SSc-specific antibodies, a higher frequency of typical SSc features than in those with isolated anti-PM/Scl was observed. CONCLUSION: The analysis of the largest series of anti-PM/Scl+ SSc patients so far reported helps to delineate a specific clinical subset with muscle involvement, cutaneous DM, calcinosis and ILD characterized by a good functional outcome. SRC and malignancies do not seem to be part of this syndrome.

Association of anti-RNA polymerase III antibody with silicone breast implants rupture in a multicentre series of Italian patients with systemic sclerosis.

OBJECTIVES: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a heterogeneous systemic autoimmune disease with distinct subsets identified by specific autoantibodies. Some environmental agents might play a role in SSc pathogenesis, including silicone breast implants (SBI). This association has been controversial in previous literature and only few studies reported the auto-antibody status in these SSc women. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association of SBI with SSc in a large cohort of Italian patients, classified according to their SSc-related autoantibodies and to their history of breast cancer. METHODS: Three Italian referral centres retrospectively collected clinical and laboratory data of consecutive SSc women, that were included when fulfilling the 2013 ACR/EULAR criteria and when SSc specific auto-antibodies status was available (anti-centromere (ACA), anti-Topoisomerase I (anti-Topo I) and anti-RNA Polymerase III antibodies (anti-RNAP3)). Data regarding history of SBI, SBI rupture and breast cancer were recorded. RESULTS: Among 742 SSc women, a history of SBI was recorded in 12 patients (1.6%); in only 1 case the implantation occurred after SSc diagnosis. In SSc patients with anti- RNAP3+ a significantly higher frequency of SBI rupture and SBI rupture without breast cancer were observed, as compared to anti-RNAP3-negative patients. No association was noted for SBI without rupture. CONCLUSIONS: In this study we demonstrated a link between SBI rupture and induction of anti-RNAP3+ SSc; further studies are needed to better define the characteristics of this syndrome and the possible effects of SBI removal and immunosuppressive treatment.