Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of Anti-TNFα Inhibitors: A Matter of Cut-Off Ranges.

Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is a useful tool for optimising the use of anti-TNFα inhibitors in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). Recently, point-of-care methods for the quantification of drug levels and anti-drug antibodies (ADAs) have been developed to overcome the limitations of conventional enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assays (ELISAs). Here, we evaluated the performance, interchangeability, and agreement between an automated ELISA-based immunoassay (CHORUS Promonitor) and the lateral flow assay (RIDA®QUICK) for the quantification of infliximab (IFX, n = 65) and adalimumab (ADM, n = 58) plasma levels in IBD patients. Thirty-two samples for IFX and twenty-three samples for ADM that tested positively for the presence of ADAs were also used. Overall, data analysis showed a good agreement of ADM trough concentrations (R2 = 0.75) between the two assays as well as for ADA measurement (K > 0.8). However, IFX levels highlighted a weak correlation (R2 = 0.58) between the two kits, with the RIDA®QUICK assay overestimating IFX plasma values by 30% when compared to the CHORUS Promonitor kit. Results from this study show that the two assays are not quantitatively and qualitatively interchangeable due to substantial discrepancies in some results. Accordingly, the same assay should be used for the longitudinal follow-up of IBD patients.

One year of experience with combined pharmacokinetic/pharmacogenetic monitoring of anti-TNF alpha agents: a retrospective study.

Anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (anti-TNFα) inhibitors are used extensively for the management of moderate to severe inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in both adult and pediatric patients. Unfortunately, not all patients show an optimal response to induction therapy, while others lose their response over time for reasons yet poorly understood. We report on a pharmacokinetic/pharmacogenetic approach to monitor the therapy with anti-TNFα in a real-world cohort of seventy-nine pediatric patients affected by IBD that was analyzed retrospectively. We evaluated plasma concentrations of infliximab, adalimumab, and related anti-drug antibodies (ADAs), and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes involved in immune processes and inflammation on the anti-TNFα response. We found a significant association between the SNP in TNFα promoter (-308G>A) and clinical remission without steroids in patients on infliximab therapy. Additionally, a potential connection between HLA-DQA1*05 genetic variant carriers and a higher risk of anti-TNFα immunogenicity emerged.

Plasma Metabolomic Profiling in 1391 Subjects with Overweight and Obesity from the SPHERE Study.

Overweight and obesity have high prevalence worldwide and assessing the metabolomic profile is a useful approach to study their related metabolic processes. In this study, we assessed the metabolomic profile of 1391 subjects affected by overweight and obesity, enrolled in the frame of the SPHERE study, using a validated LC-MS/MS targeted metabolomic approach determining a total of 188 endogenous metabolites. Multivariable censored linear regression Tobit models, correcting for age, sex, and smoking habits, showed that 83 metabolites were significantly influenced by body mass index (BMI). Among compounds with the highest association, aromatic and branched chain amino acids (in particular tyrosine, valine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine) increased with the increment of BMI, while some glycerophospholipids decreased, in particular some lysophosphatidylcholines (as lysoPC a C18:2) and several acylalkylphosphatidylcholines (as PC ae C36:2, PC ae C34:3, PC ae C34:2, and PC ae C40:6). The results of this investigation show that several endogenous metabolites are influenced by BMI, confirming the evidence with the strength of a large number of subjects, highlighting differences among subjects with different classes of obesity and showing unreported associations between BMI and different phosphatidylcholines.