Circulating senescent myeloid cells infiltrate the brain and cause neurodegeneration in histiocytic disorders.

Neurodegenerative diseases (ND) are characterized by progressive loss of neuronal function. Mechanisms of ND pathogenesis are incompletely understood, hampering the development of effective therapies. Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is an inflammatory neoplastic disorder caused by hematopoietic progenitors expressing mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)-activating mutations that differentiate into senescent myeloid cells that drive lesion formation. Some individuals with LCH subsequently develop progressive and incurable neurodegeneration (LCH-ND). Here, we showed that LCH-ND was caused by myeloid cells that were clonal with peripheral LCH cells. Circulating BRAFV600E+ myeloid cells caused the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), enhancing migration into the brain parenchyma where they differentiated into senescent, inflammatory CD11a+ macrophages that accumulated in the brainstem and cerebellum. Blocking MAPK activity and senescence programs reduced peripheral inflammation, brain parenchymal infiltration, neuroinflammation, neuronal damage and improved neurological outcome in preclinical LCH-ND. MAPK activation and senescence programs in circulating myeloid cells represent targetable mechanisms of LCH-ND.

BRAF V600E is associated with higher incidence of second cancers in adults with Langerhans cell histiocytosis.

In this retrospective study, BRAF mutation status did not correlate with disease extent or (event-free) survival in 156 adults with Langerhans cell histiocytosis. BRAFV600E was associated with an increased incidence of second malignancies, often comprising hematological cancers, which may be clonally related.

Mixed histiocytic disorders: Nature versus nurture?

Histiocytic diseases arise from MAPK mutations in myeloid progenitors. Depending on whether the progenitor follows a dendritic cell or macrophage/monocyte lineage the final histology results in Langerhans cell histiocytosis, Rosai-Dorfman disease or Erdheim-Chester disease. Commentary on: Friedman et al. Mixed histiocytic neoplasms: A multicentre series revealing diverse somatic mutations and responses to targeted therapy. Br J Haematol 2024;205:127-137.

Liver involvement with Langerhans cell histiocytosis in adults.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Liver involvement portends poor prognosis in adults. We aimed to characterize the clinical features, liver function tests, radiologic findings, molecular profiles, therapeutic approaches and outcomes of adults patients with Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) with liver involvement. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of all adults with LCH (≥ 18 years) seen at Peking Union Medical College Hospital (Beijing, China) between January 2001 and December 2022. RESULTS: Among the 445 newly diagnosed adults with LCH, 90 patients had liver involvement at diagnosis and 22 patients at relapse. The median age was 32 years (range, 18-66 years). Of 112 evaluable patients, 108 had full liver function testing, including alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), γ-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), and total bilirubin and albumin. Elevated ALP was seen in 63.0% and GGT in 86.1%; 14.8% had elevated bilirubin. Next-generation sequencing of 54 patients revealed frequent BRAFN486_P490 (29.6%), BRAFV600E (18.5%), and MAP2K1 (14.8%). OUTCOMES: After a median 40 months' follow-up (range 1-168 months), 3-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival were 49.7% and 86.6% respectively. In multivariable analyses, ≥3 abnormal liver function tests (HR 3.384, 95% CI 1.550-7.388, P = .002) associated with inferior PFS; immunomodulatory drug therapy (HR 0.073, 95% CI, 0.010-0.541, P = .010) correlated with superior PFS versus chemotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, elevated GGT and ALP were common in adults with LCH liver involvement. Greater than equal to 3 abnormal liver function tests predicted poor outcomes. Immunomodulatory drug therapy was associated with favorable progression-free survival compared to chemotherapy.

Clinicopathologic Features of Gastrointestinal Tract Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis.

Gastrointestinal (GI) tract involvement by Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is rare and its clinicopathologic characteristics have only been described in case reports and small series. We reviewed hematoxylin and eosin and CD1a, S100, and Langerin immunohistochemical-stained slides from 47 patients with well-documented demographic and clinical findings. Our cases included 8 children and 39 adults, with a mean follow-up of 63 months. All pediatric patients had concurrent multisystem LCH, presented with GI symptoms, and showed nonpolypoid lesions. Seven (88%) showed multifocal GI disease, including 5 with multiple GI organ involvement. All sampled lesions from children exhibited infiltrative growth. More than half had died of the disease or manifested persistent LCH at last follow-up. Twenty-five of 39 (64%) adults had LCH involving only the GI tract (single system), with the remaining 14 (36%) exhibiting multisystem disease. Adult single-system GI LCH was typically encountered incidentally on screening/surveillance endoscopy (72%). Most exhibited isolated colorectal involvement (88%) as a solitary polyp (92%), with a well-demarcated/noninfiltrative growth pattern (70%), and excellent prognosis (100%). In comparison, adult patients with multisystem LCH more frequently presented with GI symptoms (92%, P < .001), noncolorectal GI site involvement (50%, P = .02), multifocal GI lesions (43%, P = .005), nonpolypoid lesions (71%, P < .001), infiltrative histologic growth pattern (78%, P = .04), and persistent disease (57%, P < .001). Adult patients with multisystem LCH appear to exhibit similar clinicopathologic features to those of pediatric patients. These results demonstrated that adults with single-system LCH involving the GI tract have an excellent prognosis, whereas multisystem LCH occurring at any age carries an unfavorable prognosis. High-risk features of GI LCH include pediatric age, GI symptomatology, noncolorectal GI involvement, multifocal GI disease, nonpolypoid lesions, and infiltrative growth pattern.

Demographics and additional haematologic cancers of patients with histiocytic/dendritic cell neoplasms.

AIMS: The discovery of somatic genetic alterations established many histiocytic disorders as haematologic neoplasms. We aimed to investigate the demographic characteristics and additional haematologic cancers of patients diagnosed with histiocytic disorders in The Netherlands. METHODS AND RESULTS: We retrieved data on histiocytosis patients from the Dutch Nationwide Pathology Databank (Palga). During 1993 to 2022, more than 4000 patients with a pathologist-assigned diagnosis of a histiocytic disorder were registered in Palga. Xanthogranulomas were the most common subtype, challenging the prevailing assumption that Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is the most common histiocytic disorder. LCH and juvenile xanthogranuloma (JXG) had a peak incidence in the first years of life; males were overrepresented among all histiocytosis subgroups. 118 patients had a histiocytic disorder and an additional haematologic malignancy, including 107 (91%) adults at the time of histiocytosis diagnosis. In 16/118 patients, both entities had been analysed for the same genetic alteration(s). In 11 of these 16 patients, identical genetic alterations had been detected in both haematologic neoplasms. This included two patients with PAX5 p.P80R mutated B cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and secondary histiocytic sarcoma, further supporting that PAX5 alterations may predispose (precursor) B cells to differentiate into the myeloid lineage. All 4/11 patients with myeloid neoplasms as their additional haematologic malignancy had shared N/KRAS mutations. CONCLUSIONS: This population-based study highlights the frequency of xanthogranulomas. Furthermore, our data add to the growing evidence supporting clonal relationships between histiocytic/dendritic cell neoplasms and additional myeloid or lymphoid malignancies. Particularly adult histiocytosis patients should be carefully evaluated for the development of these associated haematologic cancers.

The plasma-soluble CSF1R level is a promising prognostic indicator for pediatric Langerhans cell histiocytosis.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare hematologic neoplasm characterized by the clonal proliferation of Langerhans-like cells. Colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) is a membrane-bound receptor that is highly expressed in LCH cells and tumor-associated macrophages. In this study, a soluble form of CSF1R protein (sCSF1R) was identified by plasma proteome profiling, and its role in evaluating LCH prognosis was explored. We prospectively measured plasma sCSF1R levels in 104 LCH patients and 10 healthy children using ELISA. Plasma sCSF1R levels were greater in LCH patients than in healthy controls (p < .001) and significantly differed among the three disease extents, with the highest level in MS RO+ LCH patients (p < .001). Accordingly, immunofluorescence showed the highest level of membrane-bound CSF1R in MS RO+ patients. Furthermore, the plasma sCSF1R concentration at diagnosis could efficiently predict the prognosis of LCH patients treated with standard first-line treatment (AUC = 0.782, p < .001). Notably, dynamic monitoring of sCSF1R levels could predict relapse early in patients receiving BRAF inhibitor treatment. In vitro drug sensitivity data showed that sCSF1R increased resistance to Ara-C in THP-1 cells expressing ectopic BRAF-V600E. Overall, the plasma sCSF1R level at diagnosis and during follow-up is of great clinical importance in pediatric LCH patients.

BRAF-V600E mutations in plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells correlate with prognosis of pediatric Langerhans cell histiocytosis treated with first-line therapy.

BACKGROUND: The clinical relevance of BRAF-V600E alleles in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and the prognostic impact of the mutants in cell-free (cf) and PBMC DNAs of Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) have not been fully clarified in pediatric LCH. METHODS: We retrospectively determined the levels of BRAF-V600E mutation in paired plasma and PBMC samples at the time of diagnosis of LCH. Subsequently, we performed a separate or combined analysis of the clinical and prognostic impact of the mutants. RESULTS: We assessed BRAF-V600E mutation in peripheral blood from 94 patients of childhood LCH. Our data showed that cfBRAF-V600E was related to young age, multiple-system (MS) disease, involvements of organs with high risk, increased risk of relapse, and worse progression-free survival (PFS) of patients. We also observed that the presence of BRAF-V600E in PBMCs at baseline was significantly associated with MS LCH with risk organ involvement, younger age, and disease progression or relapse. The coexisting of plasma(+)/PBMC(+) identified 36.2% of the patients with the worst outcome, and the hazard ratio was more significant than either of the two alone or neither, indicating that combined analysis of the mutation in plasma and PBMCs was more accurate to predict relapse than evaluation of either one. CONCLUSIONS: Concurrent assessment of BRAF-V600E mutation in plasma and PBMCs significantly impacted the prognosis of children with LCH. Further prospective studies with larger cohorts need to validate the results of this study.

Juvenile xanthogranuloma manifesting with LCH-associated neurodegenerative disease-like radiological findings.

Here, we describe two patients with juvenile xanthogranuloma (JXG) manifesting with Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH)-associated neurodegenerative disease (ND)-like radiological findings. One patient showed typical radiological abnormalities at onset, which worsened with progressing central nervous system symptoms 7 years after LCH-oriented chemotherapy. Another showed spontaneous regression of clinical symptoms, with a transient radiological change 1 year after salvage chemotherapy for recurrence of JXG. These data regarding JXG-associated ND will facilitate future investigation of the disease, as well as development of therapeutic interventions.

MEK Inhibition in the Treatment of Congenital Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a histiocytic disorder that predominantly affects young children, with congenital manifestations being exceedingly rare. Here, we report a male infant with congenital LCH harboring a driving mutation within the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway, specifically MAP2K1 Q56P. First-line use of targeted therapy with oral MEK inhibitor trametinib led to rapid and complete resolution of the infant's widespread cutaneous disease. This patient remains clinically well with normal growth and development and no sign of progressive disease or medication intolerance. This case demonstrates the impact that targeted therapy can have as an alternative to systemic chemotherapy in an age group known to experience more extensive disease.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis in children with refractory diarrhoea and hypoalbuminaemia as the initial presentation: two case reports and a literature review.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) involving the gastrointestinal tract is a rare condition for which clinical experience is limited. We describe the cases of two patients who initially presented with chronic diarrhoea, hypoproteinaemia, and intermittent fever. These findings suggest that in cases of refractory diarrhoea accompanied by recurrent hypoalbuminaemia, especially with abdominal rash, LCH should be considered. Gastrointestinal endoscopy, biopsy, and imaging studies are essential for obtaining a definitive diagnosis. This approach might be helpful for the early recognition of gastrointestinal tract involvement in LCH.

Nail as a Window to Diagnosing Multisystem Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis: A Case Report and Review of Literature.

ABSTRACT: Nail involvement in Langerhans cell histiocytosis is rarely reported in the literature. According to the reported cases, it is believed that the involvement of nails has a poor prognosis because of multisystem involvement. Performing a nail bed biopsy might be challenging for children. We report a child in whom nail bed biopsy served as the sole clue to the diagnosis of Langerhans cell histiocytosis in absentia of skin clue on a background of advanced multisystem involvement.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis of the sella in a pediatric patient: case report with review of the literature.

PURPOSE: Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare condition arising from the monoclonal expansion of myeloid precursor cells, which results in granulomatous lesions that characteristically express CD1a/CD207. We report a case of LCH in a 3-year-old male involving the sphenoid bone with extension into the sellar/suprasellar region. CASE REPORT: A 3-year-old male presented with progressively worsening headaches and associated night sweats, neck stiffness, and fatigue over the previous 4 weeks. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a 2.4-cm lytic lesion within the basisphenoid, exerting mass effect upon the pituitary gland. A biopsy was performed to determine the etiology of the lesion. Postoperatively, the patient developed an intralesional hematoma with visual complications requiring emergent surgical resection via endoscopic endonasal approach. Final pathology confirmed LCH. The patient had improvement in his vision long term. CONCLUSIONS: LCH extending into the sella is a rare but important diagnosis to consider in pediatric patients presenting with lesions in this region. We presented a case of a pediatric patient presenting with LCH of the sphenoid bone extending into the sella, with subsequent apoplexy and vision loss. Review of the literature showed varying treatment options for these patients, including purely surgical and non-surgical treatments. Early intervention may be necessary to avoid potentially devastating neurologic sequelae.

Unifocal Type-3 Mixed Histiocytosis in a 10-Years Old Child.

BACKGROUND: Histiocytoses patients present with highly heterogeneous clinical and histopathological pictures requiring multidisciplinary management. Mixed histiocytosis is a recently described group of syndromes defined by the histological overlap of Langerhans cell histiocytosis and other histiocytic proliferations that include three clinically and prognostically different conditions (i.e., Type-1-3 mixed histiocytosis). CASE REPORT: We describe a 10 year-old boy with unifocal (type-3) mixed histiocytosis - Langerhans cell histiocytosis combined with a lesion with features intermediate between Rosai-Dorfman disease and reticulohistiocytosis. Sixty months after excision, the child is disease free. DISCUSSION: Cutaneous type-3 mixed histiocytosis (Langerhans cell histiocytosis with Rosai-Dorfman disease/reticulohistiocytosis) may occur in older childhood, be unifocal, and be cured by surgical excision.

Overcoming T-cell exhaustion in LCH: PD-1 blockade and targeted MAPK inhibition are synergistic in a mouse model of LCH.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is an inflammatory myeloid neoplasia characterized by granulomatous lesions containing pathological CD207+ dendritic cells (DCs) with persistent MAPK pathway activation. Standard-of-care chemotherapies are inadequate for most patients with multisystem disease, and optimal strategies for relapsed and refractory disease are not defined. The mechanisms underlying development of inflammation in LCH lesions, the role of inflammation in pathogenesis, and the potential for immunotherapy are unknown. Analysis of the immune infiltrate in LCH lesions identified the most prominent immune cells as T lymphocytes. Both CD8+ and CD4+ T cells exhibited "exhausted" phenotypes with high expression of the immune checkpoint receptors. LCH DCs showed robust expression of ligands to checkpoint receptors. Intralesional CD8+ T cells showed blunted expression of Tc1/Tc2 cytokines and impaired effector function. In contrast, intralesional regulatory T cells demonstrated intact suppressive activity. Treatment of BRAFV600ECD11c LCH mice with anti-PD-1 or MAPK inhibitor reduced lesion size, but with distinct responses. Whereas MAPK inhibitor treatment resulted in reduction of the myeloid compartment, anti-PD-1 treatment was associated with reduction in the lymphoid compartment. Notably, combined treatment with MAPK inhibitor and anti-PD-1 significantly decreased both CD8+ T cells and myeloid LCH cells in a synergistic fashion. These results are consistent with a model that MAPK hyperactivation in myeloid LCH cells drives recruitment of functionally exhausted T cells within the LCH microenvironment, and they highlight combined MAPK and checkpoint inhibition as a potential therapeutic strategy.

PU.1 is a useful nuclear marker to distinguish between histiocytosis and histiocyte-rich tumours.

AIMS: The aim was to test the expression of PU.1 on different types of histiocytoses and to test the utility of PU.1 in confirming or excluding a histiocytic origin in tumour samples with suspicion of histiocytosis. METHODS AND RESULTS: We analysed 66 biopsies of nonmalignant histiocytoses represented by Langerhans-cell histiocytosis (n = 13), Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD) (n = 19), Rosai-Dorfman disease (RDD) (n = 14), mixed ECD-RDD (n = 3), ALK-positive histiocytosis (n = 6), and juvenile xanthogranuloma (n = 11). All cases were positive for PU.1 in reactive and neoplastic histiocytes. In addition, 39 cases of tumours with high-grade cytological atypia were referred to our center as suspicion of malignant histiocytosis/histiocytic sarcoma and only 18 were confirmed. Indeed, more than half of these tumours (21/39) were either undifferentiated malignant tumours with a stroma rich in histiocytes, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, or high-grade dedifferentiated liposarcoma. PU.1 was useful to distinguish between the negativity of large atypical nuclei and the positivity of stromal reactive histiocytes. CONCLUSION: PU.1 is expressed by all types of histiocytosis. It distinguishes histiocytosis from histiocyte-rich tumours with an easy interpretation due to its sharp nuclear staining. Its negativity in lesional/tumour cells in histiocyte-like lesions is useful to eliminate a histiocytosis.

Myeloid cells from Langerhans cell histiocytosis patients exhibit increased vesicle trafficking and an altered secretome capable of activating NK cells.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a potentially life-threatening inflammatory myeloid neoplasia linked to pediatric neurodegeneration, whereby transformed LCH cells form agglomerated lesions in various organs. Although MAP-kinase pathway mutations have been identified in LCH cells, the functional consequences of these mutations and the mechanisms that cause the pathogenic behavior of LCH cells are not well understood. In our study, we used an in vitro differentiation system and RNA-sequencing to compare monocyte-derived dendritic cells from LCH patients to those derived from healthy controls or patients with Crohn's disease, a non-histiocytic inflammatory disease. We observed that interferon-γ treatment exacerbated intrinsic differences between LCH patient and control cells, including strikingly increased endo- and exocytosis gene activity in LCH patients. We validated these transcriptional patterns in lesions and functionally confirmed that LCH cells exhibited increased endo- and exocytosis. Furthermore, RNA-sequencing of extracellular vesicles revealed the enrichment of pathological transcripts involved in cell adhesion, MAP-kinase pathway, vesicle trafficking and T-cell activation in LCH patients. Thus, we tested the effect of the LCH secretome on lymphocyte activity and found significant activation of NK cells. These findings implicate extracellular vesicles in the pathology of LCH for the first time, in line with their established roles in the formation of various other tumor niches. Thus, we describe novel traits of LCH patient cells and suggest a pathogenic mechanism of potential therapeutic and diagnostic importance.

Bronchoalveolar cytokine profile differentiates Pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis patients from other smoking-related interstitial lung diseases.

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis (PLCH) is a rare interstitial lung disease (ILD) associated with smoking, whose definitive diagnosis requires the exclusion of other forms of ILD and a compatible surgical lung biopsy. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is commonly proposed for the diagnosis of ILD, including PLCH, but the diagnostic value of this technique is limited. Here, we have analyzed the levels of a panel of cytokines and chemokines in BAL from PLCH patients, in order to identify a distinct immune profile to discriminate PLCH from other smoking related-ILD (SR-ILD), and comparing the results with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) as another disease in which smoking is considered a risk factor. METHODS: BAL samples were collected from thirty-six patients with different ILD, including seven patients with PLCH, sixteen with SR-ILD and thirteen with IPF. Inflammatory profiles were analyzed using the Human Cytokine Membrane Antibody Array. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to reduce dimensionality and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis using STRING 11.5 database were conducted. Finally, Random forest (RF) method was used to build a prediction model. RESULTS: We have found significant differences (p < 0.05) on thirty-two cytokines/chemokines when comparing BAL from PLCH patients with at least one of the other ILD. Four main groups of similarly regulated cytokines were established, identifying distinct sets of markers for each cluster. Exploratory analysis using PCA (principal component analysis) showed clustering and separation of patients, with the two first components capturing 69.69% of the total variance. Levels of TARC/CCL17, leptin, oncostatin M (OSM) and IP-10/CXCL10 were associated with lung function parameters, showing positive correlation with FVC. Finally, random forest (RF) algorithm demonstrates that PLCH patients can be differentiated from the other ILDs based solely on inflammatory profile (accuracy 96.25%). CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that patients with PLCH exhibit a distinct BAL immune profile to SR-ILD and IPF. PCA analysis and RF model identify a specific immune profile useful for discriminating PLCH.

The clinical spectrum and prognostic factors of Erdheim-Chester disease and mixed Langerhans cell histiocytosis and Erdheim-Chester disease.

Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD) is a rare and probably fatal multisystemic non-Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH). To comprehensively investigate the clinical features, genomic analysis, treatments, and prognostic factors of ECD, we retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 75 ECD patients and 10 mixed LCH and ECD patients in our center. The median age at diagnosis was 46 years (range, 5-70). ECD patients were older at diagnosis (p = 0.006) and had more cardiac involvement (p = 0.011) as well as vascular (p = 0.031) involvement compared to mixed LCH and ECD patients. 64.8% of ECD patients and 87.5% of mixed LCH and ECD patients carried BRAFV600E mutation. The BRAFV600E mutation correlated with a greater number of affected organs (p = 0.030) and was associated with lung involvement (p = 0.033) as well as pleural involvement (p = 0.002). The median follow-up time was 38 months (range, 1-174). The estimated 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 48.9% and 84.7%, respectively. In a multivariate analysis, right atrial pseudotumor (p = 0.013) and pancreatic involvement (p = 0.005) predicted worse OS, while pleural (p = 0.042) and central nervous system (CNS) involvement (p = 0.043) predicted worse PFS. Our study described the clinical spectrum of ECD and mixed LCH and ECD, while also revealed the prognostic value of right atrial pseudotumor and pancreatic, pleural, and CNS involvement for worse survival.