Yoshikazu Tsuzuki, Rie Shiomi, Hisashi Matsumoto, Kazuya Miyaguchi, Takeru Kusano, Hideki Ohgo, Hidetomo Nakamoto, Hiroyuki Imaeda J. Clin. Biochem. Nutr. 2023, 72 (1): 68-73.

Several new treatments for ulcerative colitis have been developed recently. The depletion of leukocytes by granulocyte and monocyte adsorption apheresis (GMA) was developed and adapted for patients with ulcerative colitis with rare adverse events. We investigated whether treatment with GMA and prednisolone (GMA + PSL) is more effective than PSL alone for patients with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. Forty-seven patients with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis were retrospectively analyzed. Among the 47 patients, 27 received PSL, while 20 received GMA + PSL. The clinical activity of ulcerative colitis was evaluated using the Lichtiger clinical activity index (CAI) and serum levels of C-reactive protein. Mayo endoscopic score (MES) was used to examine endoscopic activity. The clinical remission rate was significantly higher in the GMA + PSL group than in the PSL group (65% vs 29.6%, p = 0.0206). The mucosal healing rate was also significantly higher in the GMA + PSL group than in the PSL group (60% vs 26%, p = 0.0343). The combination of GMA and steroids may be more effective than steroids alone for inducing clinical remission and mucosal healing in patients with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis.

JCM | Free Full-Text | An Update on Current Pharmacotherapeutic Options for the Treatment of Ulcerative Colitis (mdpi.com)

ja (jst.go.jp)

Takumi Fukuchi , Kousaku Kawashima , Hideaki Koga , Ran Utsunomiya, Kohei Sugiyama , Keiji Shimazu , Takaaki Eguchi , Shunji Ishihara J Clin Biochem Nutr. 2022 Mar;70(2):197-204. doi: 10.3164/jcbn.21-112. Epub 2021 Dec 25.

This study examined the long-term maintenance rate after inducing remission by intensive granulocyte/monocyte adsorptive apheresis (GMA) without use of corticosteroids (CS) and GMA re-treatment efficacy in the same patients upon relapse with ulcerative colitis. Patients who achieved clinical remission and mucosal healing (MH) by first-time intensive GMA (first GMA) without CS were enrolled. The cumulative non-relapse survival rate up to week 156 was calculated. Patients with relapse during the maintenance period underwent second-time intensive GMA (second GMA) without CS. Clinical remission and MH rates following second GMA were compared to those following first GMA in the same patients. Of the 84 patients enrolled, 78 were followed until week 156 and 34 demonstrated relapse. The cumulative non-relapse survival rate by week 156 was 56.4%. Clinical remission and MH rates after second GMA did not differ from those after first GMA in the same patients (week 6: clinical remission, 100% vs 88.4%, p = 0.134; MH, 100% vs 84.8%, p = 0.074). In conclusion, MH induction by intensive GMA without use of CS in ulcerative colitis patients contributes to subsequent long-term clinical remission maintenance. GMA re-treatment efficacy was comparable to that of first GMA in the same patients who had relapse.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35400813/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8921725/

Gerardo Prieto Bozano an. pedatr. contin.2012;10(5):286-9

• Existen 2 dispositivos de granulocitoféresis: Cellsorba^® (fibras de poliéster no tejidas), que fija granulocitos y linfocitos, y Adacolumn^® (acetato de celulosa) que fija selectivamente granulocitos y monocitos.
• Además de retirar leucocitos activados, la aféresis produce incremento del número de granulocitos CD10-negativos (inmaduros), disminución de citocinas proinflamatorias (factor de necrosis tumoral alfa [TNF-α], interleucina [IL-6],IL-8 e IL-1β) e incremento de citocinas inhibitorias (IL-1, IL-10)
• La granulocitoféresis es un método razonablemente eficaz y seguro para obtener la remisión en niños con colitis ulcerosa corticodependiente o resistente, sobre todo en pacientes en el primer episodio, en enfermedad de corta evolución y en aquellos que no han recibido esteroides
• El procedimiento requiere 2 accesos venosos de buen flujo. La pauta más habitual de tratamiento consiste en 1–2 sesiones semanales de 60min a un flujo de 30ml/min, hasta un total de 5–10 sesiones

https://www.elsevier.es/es-revista-anales-pediatria-continuada-51-articulo-granulocitoferesis-colitis-ulcerosa-S1696281812701002

Zhaobei Cai ^1 2, Shu Wang ³, Jiannan Li ¹ Front Med (Lausanne)  2021 Dec 20;8:765474. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2021.765474. eCollection 2021.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), as a global disease, has attracted much research interest. Constant research has led to a better understanding of the disease condition and further promoted its management. We here reviewed the conventional and the novel drugs and therapies, as well as the potential ones, which have shown promise in preclinical studies and are likely to be effective future therapies. The conventional treatments aim at controlling symptoms through pharmacotherapy, including aminosalicylates, corticosteroids, immunomodulators, and biologics, with other general measures and/or surgical resection if necessary. However, a considerable fraction of patients do not respond to available treatments or lose response, which calls for new therapeutic strategies. Diverse therapeutic options are emerging, involving small molecules, apheresis therapy, improved intestinal microecology, cell therapy, and exosome therapy. In addition, patient education partly upgrades the efficacy of IBD treatment. Recent advances in the management of IBD have led to a paradigm shift in the treatment goals, from targeting symptom-free daily life to shooting for mucosal healing. In this review, the latest progress in IBD treatment is summarized to understand the advantages, pitfalls, and research prospects of different drugs and therapies and to provide a basis for the clinical decision and further research of IBD.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34988090/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8720971/

S. Yasukawa*, F. Hirai, Y. Takada, Y. Yano Fukuoka University Chikushi , Department of Gastroenterology, Chikushino, Japan

Concomitant GMA not only improved clinical outcome but also benefited treatment of colonic mucosal lesions in
patients with CD who showed resistance to other treatments.

P560. Concomitant granulocyte and monocyte adsorption apheresis accelerates clinical efficacy and mucosal healing of colonic lesions in patients with active Crohn’s disease (silverchair.com)

Blake O. Langley ¹,Sara E. Guedry ¹,Joshua Z. Goldenberg ¹,Douglas A. Hanes ¹,Jennifer A. Beardsley ² andJennifer Joan Ryan ^1,

The findings of this systematic scoping review highlight the potential utility of NLR as an adjunctive IBD biomarker with broad applications, including differentiation from non-IBD controls, clinical and endoscopic disease activity differentiation, prediction of loss of response to treatment, and prediction of risk of complications. NLR has promise for guiding therapeutic decision making, specifically for predicting loss of response to IFX. In conclusion, NLR is an emerging IBD biomarker with potential utility at nearly every point in IBD management. As a potential IBD biomarker, NLR is particularly advantageous given that it is minimally invasive, economical, and accessible as it is easily calculated from blood count data routinely and serially monitored in patients with IBD. Additional research is justified to better understand if routine observation of NLR in research and clinical practice could beneficially impact the care of patients with IBD.

https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/10/18/4219/htm

Rish K Pai ¹, Douglas J Hartman ², Claudia Ramos Rivers ³, Miguel Regueiro ⁴, Marc Schwartz ³, David G Binion ³, Reetesh K Pai Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2020 Oct;18(11):2510-2517.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.cgh.2019.12.011. Epub 2019 Dec 14.

Background & aims: We investigated correlations between histologic features of the colonic mucosa in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and clinical outcomes during a 3-year follow-up period. Methods: We obtained baseline biopsies from all colorectal segments (n = 889) from 281 patients with UC enrolled in a prospective study at a single center from 2009 through 2013. Biopsies were assessed in a blinded manner using validated histologic scoring systems (the Geboes score, Nancy histopathologic index, and Robarts histopathologic index). Clinical, endoscopic, and histologic data were collected and tested for correlations with systemic corticosteroid use, hospitalization, and colectomy within 3 years of the index colonoscopy. Results: We found histologic evidence of UC activity (Geboes score ≥ 2B.1) in biopsies from 182 patients (65%) and endoscopic evidence of UC activity in 149 patients (53%) (substantial agreement, κ = 0.60). Histologic features of UC activity were associated with increased rates of systemic corticosteroid use, colectomy, and hospitalization in the entire cohort (P < .05 for all) and associated with increased rates of systemic corticosteroid use in an analysis limited to patients in endoscopic remission (P < .001). In patients in endoscopic remission, only histologic activity was independently associated with use of systemic corticosteroids (multivariate odds ratio, 6.34; 95% CI, 2.20-18.28; P = .001). Similar results were seen when the entire cohort was analyzed. Compared with patients without histologic evidence of UC activity, patients with only a small number of mucosal neutrophils still had higher rates of systemic corticosteroid use (P < .001). Conclusions: Histologic evidence of UC activity, including small numbers of neutrophils in the colonic mucosa, is the only factor independently associated with use of systemic corticosteroids. Complete resolution of neutrophil-associated inflammation should be a target for treatment of UC.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31843598/

https://www.cghjournal.org/article/S1542-3565(19)31438-7/fulltext

Ailing Song, Hai Jiang, Liang Guo, Shanshan Wu, Am J Transl Res 2021;13(5):5156-5164

Objectives: The study discussed and analyzed the combined efficacy of adalimumab with granulocyte and monocyte adsorption apheresis (GMA) method on patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and the repair of intestinal mucosal lesion. Methods: 60 UC patients in moderate-to-severe active phase that hospitalized from January 2017 to March 2020 were chosen and randomly classified into observation group (n=30) and control group (n=30). The control-group patients received GMA treatment, and the observation-group patients received combination therapy of GMA and adalimumab. The therapeutic efficacy, laboratory indicators, changes of serum inflammatory factors, and intestinal mucosal barrier impairment in two sets of participants were compared. Results: The comprehensive effective rate of clinical treatment was remarkably higher in observation group than that in control group (P<0.05). CRP and ESR of the two groups in post- treatment were notably lower than those before treatment (P<0.05), while Hb and ALB in post-treatment increased significantly than in pre-intervention (P<0.05); CRP in observation group after treatment was remarkably lower than that in control group (P<0.05), while no significant difference was noticed in ESR, ALB and Hb between the two groups (P>0.05). The serum inflammatory factors in observation group in post-treatment were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.05). The scores of PCT, DAO and intestinal mucosa in two sets of participants in post-treatment were dramatically lower than those in pre-treatment (P<0.05), and the scores in observation group after treatment were notably lower than those in the control group (P<0.05). Conclusions: The combined efficacy of adalimumab with GMA on UC patients can improve the clinical curative efficacy, effectively reduce the inflammatory factors, which is beneficial to the repair of intestinal mucosal barrier function, and worthy of clinical application.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34150104/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8205815/pdf/ajtr0013-5156.pdf

Chie Kurihara, Toshihide Ohmori, Kenichi Inaba, Nao Sugihara, Yoshinori Hanawa, Kazuki Horiuchi, Akinori Wada, Shin Nishii, Akinori Mizoguchi, Suguru Ito, Rina Tanemoto, Akira Tomioka, Yoshikiyo Okada, Yoshihiro Akita, Kazuyuki Narimatsu, Masaaki Higashiyama, Shunsuke Komoto, Kengo Tomita, Ryota Hokari

Background: Granulocyte and monocyte adsorptive apheresis (GMA) is non-pharmacological therapy which selective depletion of activated granulocytes and monocytes/macrophages from peripheral blood, and it is used as induction therapy for IBD. However, its therapeutic mechanism has not been well characterized. Recently, mucosal healing has been emerged as a therapeutic goal for IBD. It has been reported that growth factors play a role in improvement of mucosal repair and regeneration in animal colitis models, and tight junction proteins which impact mucosal permeability play a crucial role in mucosal healing. We investigated that changes in mRNA expression levels of these molecules in colonic mucosa of ulcerative colitis (UC) patients before and after GMA treatment in order to obtain further understanding of GMA therapeutic mechanisms. Methods: Thirty-two active UC patients (Mayo score ≥ 5 and Mayo endoscopic score ≥ 2) were enrolled in this study. All UC patients received 10-11 times of GMA, and colonoscopies were applied before the first GMA (preGMA) and after the last GMA (post-GMA). Assessment of GMA therapeutic efficacy and colonic mucosal healing were determined based on Mayo score. Growth factors such as EGF and HGF, and tight junction proteins such as occludin and ZO-1 mRNA expressions were determined by quantitative RT-PCR using biopsy specimen of colonic mucosa. Results: After GMA treatment, 11 patients (34.4%) achieved clinical remission, 17 patients (53.1%) showed clinical response and 4 patients (12.5%) showed non-response. All patients of the clinical remission group achieved mucosal healing, whereas none of patients in non-response group achieved mucosal healing. Baseline characteristics such as sex, location of disease, CRP, WBC and Mayo score were not significantly different according to GMA efficacy. In both pre-GMA and post-GMA, the clinical remission group showed significantly higher expressions of occludin, ZO-1 and EGF mRNA in mucosal tissue than those of the nonresponse group (P <0.05). Post-GMA, HGF mRNA expression tended to be lower in the remission group than those in non-response group. In the non-response group, levels of occludin and ZO-1 mRNA significantly decreased post-GMA compared to their pre-GMA levels (P <0.05), but they were not decreased in the clinical remission group. In contrast, HGF mRNA level decreased post-GMA compared to its pre-GMA level in the remission group, but it was not decreased in the non-response group. Conclusion: In UC patients who achieved clinical remission by GMA, expressions of EGF and tight junction molecules were higher significantly, and mRNA level of HGF decreased after GMA treatment. These results suggest that these molecules play an important role in mucosal healing, and could be helpful for choosing patients who are respond to GMA before treatment

https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(21)01910-7/pdf

Masanao Nakamura ¹, Takeshi Yamamura ¹, Keiko Maeda ², Tsunaki Sawada ², Yasuyuki Mizutani ¹, Eri Ishikawa ¹, Ayako Ohashi ¹, Go Kajikawa ¹, Kazuhiro Furukawa ¹, Eizaburo Ohno ¹, Takashi Honda ¹, Hiroki Kawashima ¹, Masatoshi Ishigami ¹, Mitsuhiro Fujishiro ¹

Intern Med. 2020 Dec 1;59(23):3009-3014. doi: 10.2169/internalmedicine.5302-20. Epub 2020 Jul 28.

Granulocyte and monocyte adsorptive apheresis (GMA) is occasionally introduced as an alternative combination therapy after loss of response to biologics in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients. However, there have been no reports of the concomitant use of vedolizumab (VDZ) and GMA for the initial induction of UC. A 20-year-old man with refractory UC was admitted for recrudescence. VDZ monotherapy had previously been introduced but was ineffective. Therefore, he received scheduled combination of VDZ and GMA and achieved clinical remission. The combination of two different approaches to inhibit the migration of leukocytes into the inflamed tissue led to satisfactory clinical outcomes.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32727993/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7759717/