Clinical spectrum time course in non-Asian patients positive for anti-MDA5 antibodies.

OBJECTIVES: To define the clinical spectrum time-course and prognosis of non-Asian patients positive for anti-MDA5 antibodies. METHODS: We conducted a multicentre, international, retrospective cohort study. RESULTS: 149 anti-MDA5 positive patients (median onset age 53 years, median disease duration 18 months), mainly females (100, 67%), were included. Dermatomyositis (64, 43%) and amyopathic dermatomyositis (47, 31%), were the main diagnosis; 15 patients (10%) were classified as interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features (IPAF) and 7 (5%) as rheumatoid arthritis. The main clinical findings observed were myositis (84, 56%), interstitial lung disease (ILD) (108, 78%), skin lesions (111, 74%), and arthritis (76, 51%). The onset of these manifestations was not concomitant in 74 cases (50%). Of note, 32 (21.5%) patients were admitted to the intensive care unit for rapidly progressive-ILD, which occurred in median 2 months from lung involvement detection, in the majority of cases (28, 19%) despite previous immunosuppressive treatment. One-third of patients (47, 32% each) was ANA and anti-ENA antibodies negative and a similar percentage was anti-Ro52 kDa antibodies positive. Non-specific interstitial pneumonia (65, 60%), organising pneumonia (23, 21%), and usual interstitial pneumonia-like pattern (14, 13%) were the main ILD patterns observed. Twenty-six patients died (17%), 19 (13%) had a rapidly progressive-ILD. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical spectrum of the anti-MDA5 antibodies-related disease is heterogeneous. Rapidly-progressive ILD deeply impacts the prognosis also in non-Asian patients, occurring early during the disease course. Anti-MDA5 antibody positivity should be considered even when baseline autoimmune screening is negative, anti-Ro52 kDa antibodies are positive, and radiology findings show a NSIP pattern.

Possible misclassification of cardiovascular risk by SCORE in antisynthetase syndrome: results of the pilot multicenter study RI.CAR.D.A.

OBJECTIVES: To test the ability of an established traditional cardiovascular (CV) risk prediction score [Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE)] and its EULAR modified version (mSCORE) to identify antisynthetase syndrome (ASyS) patients at high CV risk and to examine for the first time associations of CV and cerebrovascular surrogate markers with clinical and immunological ASyS parameters. METHODS: SCORE/mSCORE and the gold standard marker of aortic stiffness [carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV)] were examined in ASyS patients and healthy controls. Moreover, sonography of the common- (CCA) and internal- (ICA) carotid arteries was performed in subsets of both groups, evaluating carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT), plaques and Doppler sonographic cerebrovascular surrogates [resistance (RI) and pulsatility (PI) indices]. RESULTS: We recruited 66 ASyS patients and 88 controls. According to mSCORE, 10% of the patients had high CV risk. However, cfPWV and carotid sonography revealed an increased CV risk in 21.2% and subclinical carotid atherosclerosis (SCA) in 85.7% of the patients, respectively. cfPWV and cIMT were higher in patients compared with controls (Padj=0.021 and Padj=0.003, respectively). In the ASyS group, cfPWV and cIMT correlated significantly with age (r = 0.679; P<0.001 and r = 0.664; P<0.001, respectively). Moreover, cfPWV correlated with BMI (Padj=0.001) and diabetes (Padj=0.043). CCA-RI and CCA-PI showed significant associations with creatine phosphokinase (r = 0.629; P=0.012 and r = 0.574; P=0.032, respectively) and ICA-RI and ICA-PI were higher in patients with lung involvement (both; P=0.039). CONCLUSION: ASyS patients had higher aortic stiffness and SCA compared with controls, even after adjustment for confounders. SCORE/mSCORE performed poorly in identifying high-risk patients compared with cfPWV and carotid sonography. Thus, cfPWV and carotid sonography may improve CV and cerebrovascular screening in ASyS.

Influence of Antisynthetase Antibodies Specificities on Antisynthetase Syndrome Clinical Spectrum Time Course.

Antisynthetase syndrome (ASSD) is a rare clinical condition that is characterized by the occurrence of a classic clinical triad, encompassing myositis, arthritis, and interstitial lung disease (ILD), along with specific autoantibodies that are addressed to different aminoacyl tRNA synthetases (ARS). Until now, it has been unknown whether the presence of a different ARS might affect the clinical presentation, evolution, and outcome of ASSD. In this study, we retrospectively recorded the time of onset, characteristics, clustering of triad findings, and survival of 828 ASSD patients (593 anti-Jo1, 95 anti-PL7, 84 anti-PL12, 38 anti-EJ, and 18 anti-OJ), referring to AENEAS (American and European NEtwork of Antisynthetase Syndrome) collaborative group's cohort. Comparisons were performed first between all ARS cases and then, in the case of significance, while using anti-Jo1 positive patients as the reference group. The characteristics of triad findings were similar and the onset mainly began with a single triad finding in all groups despite some differences in overall prevalence. The "ex-novo" occurrence of triad findings was only reduced in the anti-PL12-positive cohort, however, it occurred in a clinically relevant percentage of patients (30%). Moreover, survival was not influenced by the underlying anti-aminoacyl tRNA synthetase antibodies' positivity, which confirmed that antisynthetase syndrome is a heterogeneous condition and that antibody specificity only partially influences the clinical presentation and evolution of this condition.

Nailfold Capillaroscopy Characteristics of Antisynthetase Syndrome and Possible Clinical Associations: Results of a Multicenter International Study.

OBJECTIVE: To describe nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC) features of patients with antisynthetase syndrome (AS) and to investigate possible correlations with clinical and serological features of the disease. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed NVC images of 190 patients with AS [females/males 3.63, mean age 49.7 ± 12.8 yrs, median disease duration 53.7 mos (interquartile range 82), 133 anti-Jo1 and 57 non-anti-Jo1-positive patients]. For each patient, we examined number of capillaries, giant capillaries, microhemorrhages, avascular areas, ramified capillaries, and the presence of systemic sclerosis (SSc)-like pattern. Finally, we correlated NVC features with clinical and serological findings of patients with AS. Concomitantly, a historical cohort of 75 patients with antinuclear antibody-negative primary Raynaud phenomenon (RP) and longterm followup was used as a control group (female/male ratio 4.13/1, mean age 53.9 ± 17.6 yrs) for NVC measures. RESULTS: NVC abnormalities were observed in 62.1% of AS patients compared with 29.3% of primary RP group (p < 0.001). An SSc-like pattern was detected in 67 patients (35.3%) and it was associated with anti-Jo1 antibodies (p = 0.002) and also with a longer disease duration (p = 0.004). Interestingly, there was no significant correlation between the presence of SSc-like pattern and RP, and only 47% of patients with SSc-like pattern had RP. CONCLUSION: NVC abnormalities are commonly observed in AS, independently from the occurrence of RP. The presence of an SSc-like pattern could allow identification of a more defined AS subtype, and prospective studies could confirm the association with clinical and serological features of AS.

High-sensitive troponin is associated with subclinical imaging biosignature of inflammatory cardiovascular involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus.

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular (CV) involvement in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is presumably subclinical for the major part of its evolution. We evaluated the associations between high-sensitive troponin T (hs-TropT), a sensitive marker of myocardial injury, and CV involvement using cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR). METHODS AND RESULTS: This is a two-centre (London and Frankfurt) CMR imaging study at 3.0 Tesla of consecutive 92 patients with SLE free of cardiac symptoms, undergoing screening for cardiac involvement. Venous samples were drawn and analysed post-hoc for cardiac biomarkers, including hs-TropT, high-sensitive C reactive protein and N-terminal pro brain natriuretic peptide. Compared with age-matched/gender-matched non-SLE controls (n=78), patients had significantly raised cardiac biomarker levels, native T1 and T2, aortic and ventricular stiffness, and reduced global longitudinal strain (p<0.01). In SLE, hs-TropT was significantly and independently associated with native T2, followed by the models including native T1 and aortic stiffness (Χ2 0.462, p<0.01). There were no relationships between hs-TropT and age, gender, CV risk factors, duration of systemic disease, cardiac structure or function, or late gadolinium enhancement. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with SLE have a high prevalence of subclinical myocardial injury as demonstrated by raised high-sensitive troponin levels. CMR with T2 mapping reveals myocardial oedema as the strongest predictor of hs-TropT release, underscoring the inflammatory interstitial remodelling as the main mechanism of injury. Patients without active myocardial inflammation demonstrate diffuse interstitial remodelling and increased vascular stiffness. These findings substantiate the role of CMR in screening of subclinical cardiac involvement. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMER: NCT02407197; Results.

C5b-9 deposits on endomysial capillaries in non-dermatomyositis cases.

Deposits of the terminal-membrane-attack-complex (MAC) C5b-9 on perfascicular endomysial capillaries are generally regarded as diagnostic hallmark of dermatomyositis (DM). Although the pathophysiology is not clear, C5b-9 deposits on capillaries seem to be associated with microinfarctions and vascular damage. Here, we report on a series of 19 patients presenting with C5b-9 accumulation on endomysial capillaries in the absence of features for DM. To decipher differences in the capillary C5b-9 accumulation pattern between DM and non-DM cases, we assessed the extent of endomysial capillary C5b-9 deposits related to capillary density and extent of myofiber necrosis by immunohistochemistry in 12 DM and 8 control patients. We found similar numbers of C5b-9-positive myofibers in both DM and non-DM C5b-9(+) cases. The distribution pattern differed as DM cases showed significantly more perifascicular capillary C5b-9 deposits as compared to non-DM cases, which presented stronger endomysial capillary C5b-9 deposits in a diffuse pattern. While total capillary density was not differing, DM patients displayed significantly more C5b-9(+) necrotic fibers as compared to non-DM C5b-9(+). In summary, endomysial capillary C5b-9 deposits are present in a variety of non-DM cases, however with differing distribution pattern. In conclusion, capillary C5b-9(+) deposits should be assessed critically, taking into consideration the distribution pattern.

Diagnostic and clinical relevance of the autophago-lysosomal network in human gliomas.

Recently, the conserved intracellular digestion mechanism 'autophagy' has been considered to be involved in early tumorigenesis and its blockade proposed as an alternative treatment approach. However, there is an ongoing debate about whether blocking autophagy has positive or negative effects in tumor cells. Since there is only poor data about the clinico-pathological relevance of autophagy in gliomas in vivo, we first established a cell culture based platform for the in vivo detection of the autophago-lysosomal components. We then investigated key autophagosomal (LC3B, p62, BAG3, Beclin1) and lysosomal (CTSB, LAMP2) molecules in 350 gliomas using immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, immunoblotting and qPCR. Autophagy was induced pharmacologically or by altering oxygen and nutrient levels. Our results show that autophagy is enhanced in astrocytomas as compared to normal CNS tissue, but largely independent from the WHO grade and patient survival. A strong upregulation of LC3B, p62, LAMP2 and CTSB was detected in perinecrotic areas in glioblastomas suggesting micro-environmental changes as a driver of autophagy induction in gliomas. Furthermore, glucose restriction induced autophagy in a concentration-dependent manner while hypoxia or amino acid starvation had considerably lesser effects. Apoptosis and autophagy were separately induced in glioma cells both in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, our findings indicate that autophagy in gliomas is rather driven by micro-environmental changes than by primary glioma-intrinsic features thus challenging the concept of exploitation of the autophago-lysosomal network (ALN) as a treatment approach in gliomas.

ATP synthase deficiency due to TMEM70 mutation leads to ultrastructural mitochondrial degeneration and is amenable to treatment.

TMEM70 is involved in the biogenesis of mitochondrial ATP synthase and mutations in the TMEM70 gene impair oxidative phosphorylation. Herein, we report on pathology and treatment of ATP synthase deficiency in four siblings. A consanguineous family of Roma (Gipsy) ethnic origin gave birth to 6 children of which 4 were affected presenting with dysmorphic features, failure to thrive, cardiomyopathy, metabolic crises, and 3-methylglutaconic aciduria as clinical symptoms. Genetic testing revealed a homozygous mutation (c.317-2A>G) in the TMEM70 gene. While light microscopy was unremarkable, ultrastructural investigation of muscle tissue revealed accumulation of swollen degenerated mitochondria with lipid crystalloid inclusions, cristae aggregation, and exocytosis of mitochondrial material. Biochemical analysis of mitochondrial complexes showed an almost complete ATP synthase deficiency. Despite harbouring the same mutation, the clinical outcome in the four siblings was different. Two children died within 60 h after birth; the other two had recurrent life-threatening metabolic crises but were successfully managed with supplementation of anaplerotic amino acids, lipids, and symptomatic treatment during metabolic crisis. In summary, TMEM70 mutations can cause distinct ultrastructural mitochondrial degeneration and almost complete deficiency of ATP synthase but are still amenable to treatment.

Anti-tissue factor (TF9-10H10) treatment reduces tumor cell invasiveness in a novel migratory glioma model.

In vitro and descriptive studies of human tissue samples revealed the pro-coagulant glycoprotein tissue factor (TF) as a potent player in glioma cell infiltration that is activated by hypoxia and has also been shown to be upregulated by mutations of TP53 or PTEN. Here we present the morphological and genetic characterization of a novel glioblastoma in vivo model and provide evidence that treatment with an antibody targeting TF leads to reduced glioma cell invasiveness. Therefore, we established a murine xenograft treatment model by transplanting the angiogenic and diffusely infiltrating human glioma cell line MZ-18 with endogenous TF expression into nude mice brains and treating these mice with an intracranial osmotic pump system continuously infusing a monoclonal antibody against TF (mAb TF9-10H10). The human MZ-18 cell line harbors two TP53 mutations resulting in a strong nuclear accumulation of p53, thereby facilitating the unambiguous identification of tumor cells in the xenograft model. Intracranial application of TF9-10H10 significantly reduced invasion of MZ-18 cells compared to mock-treated control animals. The extent of activated blood vessels was also reduced upon anti-TF treatment. Thus, targeting the TF pathway might be a promising treatment strategy for future glioblastoma therapies, by affecting both invading tumor cells and tumor vasculature.