Treating Autoimmune-Related Interstitial Lung Disease With B Cell Depletion.

Autoimmune rheumatic diseases may affect vital organs with lung involvement being severe and difficult to treat manifestation. Systemic sclerosis (SSc) commonly affects the lung in the form of interstitial lung disease (ILD). ILD may be also seen in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Sjögren's syndrome (SS), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), inflammatory myositis (IM), antisynthetase syndrome (AS), and the ANCA-associated vasculitides (AAV).

B Cell Depletion Treatment in Resistant Systemic Sclerosis Interstitial Lung Disease.

Systemic sclerosis is a systemic, autoimmune disease that in many patients affects not only the skin, but also internal organs, mainly the lung. It is clear that internal organ (ie, lung) involvement determines the prognosis. Therefore, there is an unmet need to introduce novel and more effective treatments capable of halting disease progression and hence improve prognosis.

B cell depletion treatment decreases Th17 cells in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Introduction: We aimed to evaluate for any possible effects of treatment with rituximab (RTX) on the peripheral Th17 and Treg subpopulations in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Patients And Methods: We analyzed 16 patients with RA initiating RTX treatment, 11 patients with RA initiating abatacept treatment, 11 patients with RA treated with other medications, 8 patients with other autoimmune rheumatic diseases initiating RTX, and 14 healthy volunteers. Th17 cells (CD4IL23RIL17A) and Treg cells (CD4CD25FoxP3) were evaluated flow-cytometrically.

Glomerulonephritis in Two Patients with SpA Treated with TNF-α Blockers and a Review of the Literature.

Renal failure or acute/chronic kidney damage may present as a clinical manifestation of rheumatic diseases. In addition treatment with DMARDs or biologic drugs may induce nephrotoxicity. In this case-based review, we present two patients with SpA under anti-TNF-α treatment admitted to our hospital because of renal failure and proteinuria.