Stabilization Without Rituximab After Disease Activation in an Alemtuzumab-Treated Patient with Multiple Sclerosis and a Literature Overview.
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SUBMITTER: Kahovec C
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6552997 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Background Autoimmune adverse events are the most relevant risks of alemtuzumab therapy. We present a patient with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, who developed adult-onset Still’s disease (AOSD) following alemtuzumab treatment. Case Presentation The patient suffered from sore throat, swallowing difficulties, high spiking quotidian fever, generalized skin rash, arthritis, and myalgia 2 months after the second course of alemtuzumab. Laboratory tests revealed elevated acute-phase reactants, anemia, neutrophilic leukocytosis, and thrombocytosis. Serum calprotectin, interleukin-2, and interleukin-6 levels were strongly increased. Autoimmune, rheumatic, neoplastic, infectious, and granulomatous disorders were excluded. The NLRP1 and NLRP3 gene test, which was performed under the presumption of a cryopyrin-associated autoinflammatory syndrome, was negative. Based on the Yamaguchi and Fautrel criteria, and supported by the histological findings from a skin biopsy of the rash, the diagnosis of AOSD was established. Therapy with the anti-IL-1 agent (anakinra) led to a significant improvement of symptoms and blood parameters. However, anakinra had to be converted to rituximab due to generalized drug eruption. Following therapy with rituximab, the patient has fully recovered. Conclusion The current case highlights AOSD as another rare and potentially life-threatening secondary autoinflammatory/autoimmune event following alemtuzumab treatment.
| S-EPMC7493652 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-EPMC6486037 | biostudies-literature
Project description:There is a lack of literature documenting the use of alemtuzumab in pediatric multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Here we describe a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old patient receiving alemtuzumab and being followed for 37 months and 20 months, respectively. Both patients experienced a 1.0 decrease in Expanded Disability Status Scale since initial alemtuzumab infusion and had stable disease. No serious infusion reactions, infections, or definite relapses were recorded on follow-up. Alemtuzumab has been relatively well-tolerated and effective; however, larger, longer-term studies are necessary to understand the specific risks and benefits of alemtuzumab in pediatric MS.
| S-EPMC7333501 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Alemtuzumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody that is administered daily for 5 days, and then no further therapy is required for 12 months. It causes rapid and prolonged lymphocyte depletion; the consequent homeostatic reconstitution leads to a radically reformed lymphocyte pool with a relative increase in regulatory T cells and expansion of autoreactive T cells. Although previously licensed for the treatment of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia, it is now been considered for licensing in the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). From a disappointing experience with alemtuzumab in progressive MS, Alastair Compston and I argued that immunotherapies should be given early in the course of the disease. In a unique program of drug development in MS, alemtuzumab has been compared in 1 phase 2 trial and 2 phase 3 trials with the active comparator interferon beta-1a. In all trials, alemtuzumab was more effective in suppressing relapses than interferon beta-1a. In one phase 2 and one phase 3 trial, alemtuzumab also reduced the risk of accumulating disability compared with interferon beta-1a. Indeed, alemtuzumab treatment led to an improvement in disability and a reduction in cerebral atrophy. The safety issues are infusion-associated reactions largely controlled by methylprednisolone, antihistamines, and antipyretics; mild-to-moderate infections (with 3 opportunistic infections from the open-label experience: 1 case each of spirochaetal gingivitis, pyogenic granuloma, and Listeria meningitis); and autoimmunity. Usually autoimmunity is directed against the thyroid gland, but causes (1 %) immune thrombocytopenia, and in a few cases antiglomerular basement membrane syndrome. Alemtuzumab is an effective therapy for early relapsing-remitting MS, offering disability improvement at least to 5 years after treatment. Its use requires careful monitoring so that potentially serious side effects can be treated early and effectively.
| S-EPMC3557360 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundFew data exist concerning conversion to secondary progressive MS in patients treated with disease-modifying therapies.ObjectiveDetermine the proportion of alemtuzumab-treated patients converting from relapsing-remitting to secondary progressive MS during the CARE-MS core and extension studies.MethodsPatients (N?=?811) were analyzed post hoc for secondary progressive MS conversion. Optimal conversion definition: Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score ?4, pyramidal functional system score ?2, and confirmed progression over ?3?months including confirmation within the functional system leading to progression, independent of relapse.ResultsOver 6.2?years median follow-up, 20 alemtuzumab-treated patients converted (Kaplan-Meier estimate, 2.7%; 95% confidence interval, 1.8%-4.2%). Sensitivity analysis accounting for dropouts showed similar results (3%), as did analyses using alternative definitions with different EDSS thresholds and/or confirmation periods, and analysis of core study subcutaneous interferon beta-1a-treated patients who received alemtuzumab in the extension. Patients converting to secondary progressive MS were older, and had higher EDSS scores and greater brain lesion volumes at baseline, but did not need additional alemtuzumab or other therapies.ConclusionsThe 6-year conversion rate to secondary progressive MS was low for alemtuzumab-treated patients, supporting further study of the role alemtuzumab may play in reducing risk of secondary progression.ClinicalTrials.gov identifiers: NCT00530348, NCT00548405, NCT00930553.
| S-EPMC7750777 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Multiple sclerosis (MS) is among the most common chronic inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system. Although not curable, the constantly increasing armamentarium of disease-modifying drugs now allows control of disease activity in many patients. The humanized monoclonal antibody alemtuzumab is a powerful drug licensed for the treatment of MS. Upon binding to the CD52 surface protein on CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, B cells, and monocytes, circulating CD52+ cells are eliminated via antibody- and complement-mediated lysis, and a less autoreactive adaptive immune system is reconstituted. The efficacy of alemtuzumab in terms of both clinical and magnetic resonance imaging outcomes has been demonstrated in several phase II/III trials including long-term extensions and follow-up studies. Treatment response to alemtuzumab is strongest as long as active inflammation is the predominant pathophysiological feature, and it is becoming less efficacious in neurodegeneration-dominated later stages of the disease. Thus, the optimal placement of alemtuzumab within treatment algorithms of MS is crucial. The impressive efficacy of alemtuzumab is counteracted by a less favorable safety profile. Besides usually manageable infusion-associated side effects, development of secondary autoimmunity in almost half of treated patients is the most disconcerting risk of alemtuzumab. The high frequency, the delayed occurrence, and the potentially severe course of secondary autoimmune diseases require awareness and a close long-term monitoring of patients treated with alemtuzumab. Biomarkers that would allow prediction of treatment response to alemtuzumab on the one hand and identification of patients at risk for the development of secondary autoimmune diseases on the other are not yet available. Thus, the overall success of alemtuzumab treatment critically depends on the patient selection. The aim of this article is therefore, to characterize the significance of alemtuzumab in the treatment of MS with a focus on the selection of the optimal patient.
| S-EPMC5076850 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionStudies investigating rates and risk factors for serious safety events (SSEs) during rituximab treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS), neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD), and related disorders are limited.MethodsRituximab-treated patients with MS, NMOSD, or related disorders at the Rocky Mountain and New York University MS Care Centers were included. The follow-up period was defined as the time from the initial dose of rituximab up to 12 months of last dose of rituximab or ocrelizumab (in patients who switched). Clinician-reported and laboratory data were retrospectively collected from electronic medical records.ResultsOne-thousand patients were included comprising 907 MS, 77 NMOSD, and 16 related disorders. Patients had a mean follow-up of 31.1 months and a mean cumulative rituximab dose of 4012 mg. Of the 169 patients who switched to ocrelizumab, the mean ocrelizumab dose was 1141 mg. Crude incidence rate per 1000 person-years (PY) for lymphopenia was 19.2, neutropenia 5.6, and hypogammaglobulinemia 17.8. Infections resulting in either hospitalization, IV antibiotics, or using antibiotics ≥14 days occurred at a rate of 38.6/1000 PY. Risk factors for infection were duration of therapy, male gender, increased disability, prior exposure to immunosuppression/chemotherapy, lymphopenia, and hypogammaglobulinemia. Particularly, wheelchair-bound patients had 8.56-fold increased odds of infections. Crude incidence rates of malignant cancer were 3.5, new autoimmune disease 2.3, thromboembolic event 3.1, and mortality of 5.4 per 1000 PY.InterpretationRates of SSEs in patients with MS, NMOSD, and related disorders were low. Through properly assessing risk:benefit of B-cell depleting therapy in neuroinflammatory disorders and continual monitoring, clinicians may decrease the risk of serious infections.
| S-EPMC7480911 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Alemtuzumab is a humanized anti-CD52 monoclonal antibody approved in more than 65 countries for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Compared with subcutaneous interferon-beta-1a, alemtuzumab significantly reduced clinical disease activity and the rate of brain volume loss, and improved disability outcomes in patients with active RRMS who were either treatment naive (CARE-MS I study) or who had an inadequate response (??1 relapse after???6 months of treatment) to prior therapy (CARE-MS II study). Adverse events (AEs) associated with alemtuzumab include infusion-associated reactions, infections, and autoimmunity. The most commonly reported autoimmune AEs observed with alemtuzumab involve the thyroid gland, followed by immune thrombocytopenia and nephropathies. A monitoring program was designed and implemented to facilitate the early detection of autoimmune events to ensure timely and adequate management. The aim of this article is to provide physicians (including neurologists, general practitioners, endocrinologists, hematologists, and nephrologists who may be less familiar with the symptoms and treatment of autoimmune events), with practical real-world recommendations for the monitoring and management of autoimmunity associated with alemtuzumab treatment.
| S-EPMC6182701 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveTo determine the immunocompetency of patients with multiple sclerosis treated with the lymphodepleting humanized monoclonal antibody alemtuzumab.MethodsIn this pilot case-control study, we assessed immunocompetence in 24 patients after alemtuzumab treatment by measuring antibody responses to 3 vaccines (diphtheria, tetanus, and poliomyelitis vaccine, Haemophilus influenzae type b and meningococcal group C conjugate vaccine, and pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine). In 20 patients, antibodies to common viruses (mumps, rubella, varicella-zoster, and Epstein-Barr virus) were measured before alemtuzumab treatment, then at 1 and 9-11 months after treatment. Results were compared with well-defined historical controls.ResultsSerum antibodies against common viruses remained detectable after treatment, and vaccine responses were normal to T-cell-dependent recall antigens (tetanus, diphtheria, and polio), a T-cell-dependent novel antigen (meningococcus C), and T-cell-independent antigens (pneumococcal). There was no evidence for a diminished response to vaccinations in 5 patients studied within 6 months of alemtuzumab treatment.ConclusionIn this small historically controlled pilot study, we demonstrated i) retained humoral immunologic memory (in the form of antibodies against common viruses and response to recall antigens), and ii) the retained ability to mount a humoral immune response against a novel antigen after treatment with alemtuzumab.Classification of evidenceThis pilot study provides Class III evidence that patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis appear immunocompetent after treatment with alemtuzumab.
| S-EPMC3885219 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Alemtuzumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody against CD52 (cluster of differentiation 52) and is approved for the therapy of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. The application of alemtuzumab leads to a rapid, but long-lasting depletion predominantly of CD52-bearing B and T cells with reprogramming effects on immune cell composition resulting in the restoration of tolerogenic networks. Alemtuzumab has proven high efficacy in clinical phase II and III trials, where interferon ?-1a was used as active comparator. However, alemtuzumab is associated with frequent and considerable risks. Most importantly secondary autoimmune disease affects 30%-40% of patients, predominantly impairing thyroid function. Extensive monitoring and early intervention allow for an appropriate risk management. However, new and reliable biomarkers for individual risk stratification and treatment response to improve patient selection and therapy guidance are a significant unmet need. Only a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms of action (MOA) will reveal such markers, maximizing the best potential risk-benefit ratio for the individual patient. This review provides and analyses the current knowledge on the MOA of alemtuzumab. Most recent data on efficacy and safety of alemtuzumab are presented and future research opportunities are discussed.
| S-EPMC4519957 | biostudies-literature