Tom Macleod, Charles Bridgewood, Dennis McGonagle, The Lancet Rheumatology Volume 5, Issue 1, January 2023, Pages e47-e57

Neutrophilic inflammation is a pervasive characteristic common to spondyloarthropathies and related disorders. This inflammation manifests as Munro’s microabscesses of the skin and osteoarticular neutrophilic inflammation in patients with psoriatic arthritis, intestinal crypt abscesses in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, ocular hypopyon in anterior uveitis, and neutrophilic macroscopic and microscopic inflammation in patients with Behçet’s disease. Strong MHC class I associations are seen in these diseases, which represent so-called MHC-I-opathies, and these associations indicate an involvement of CD8 T-cell immunopathology that is not yet well understood. In this Personal View, we highlight emerging data suggesting that the T-cell-neutrophil axis involves both a T-cell-mediated and interleukin (IL)-17-mediated (type 17) recruitment and activation of neutrophils, and also a sequestration of activated neutrophils at disease sites that might directly amplify type 17 T-cell responses. This amplification likely involves neutrophilic production of IL-23 and proteases as well as other feedback mechanisms that could be regulated by local microbiota, pathogens, or tissue damage. This crosstalk between innate and adaptive immunity offers a novel explanation for how bacterial and fungal microbes at barrier sites could innately control type 17 T-cell development, with the aim of restoring tissue homoeostasis, and could potentially explain features of clinical disease and treatment response, such as the fast-onset action of the IL-23 pathway blockade in certain patients. This axis could be crucial to understanding non-response to IL-23 inhibitors among patients with ankylosing spondylitis, as the axial skeleton is a site rich in neutrophils and a site of haematopoiesis with myelopoiesis in adults.

Role of neutrophil interleukin-23 in spondyloarthropathy spectrum disorders – ScienceDirect

Role of neutrophil interleukin-23 in spondyloarthropathy spectrum disorders – The Lancet Rheumatology

Farah Yasmin ¹, Hala Najeeb ¹, Unaiza Naeem ¹, Abdul Moeed ¹, Thoyaja Koritala ², Salim Surani ^3 4

World J Clin Cases  2022 Jul 26;10(21):7195-7208. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i21.7195.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a hallmark of leukocyte infiltration, followed by the release of cytokines and interleukins. Disease progression to Ulcerative Colitis (UC) or Crohn’s Disease (CD) remained largely incurable. The genetic and environmental factors disrupt enteral bacteria in the gut, which hampers the intestinal repairing capability of damaged mucosa. Commonly practiced pharmacological therapies include 5-aminosalicylic acid with corticosteroids and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α. New interventions such as CDP571 and TNF-blocking RDP58 report the loss of patient response. This review discusses the non-pharmacologic selective granulocyte-monocyte-apheresis (GMA) and leukocytapheresis (LCAP) that have been proposed as treatment modalities that reduce mortality. GMA, an extracorporeal vein-to-vein technique, presents a strong safety profile case for its use as a viable therapeutic option compared to GMA’s conventional medication safety profile. GMA reported minimal to no side effects in the pediatric population and pregnant women. Numerous studies report the efficacious nature of GMA in UC patients, whereas data on CD patients is insufficient. Its benefits outweigh the risks and are emerging as a favored non-pharmacological treatment option. On the contrary, LCAP uses a general extracorporeal treatment that entraps leukocytes and suppresses cytokine release. It has been deemed more efficacious than conventional drug treatments, the former causing better disease remission, and maintenance. Patients with UC/CD secondary to complications have responded well to the treatment. Side effects of the procedure have remained mild to moderate, and there is little evidence of any severe adverse event occurring in most age groups. LCAP decreases the dependence on steroids and immunosuppressive therapies for IBD. The review will discuss the role of GMA and LCAP.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36158031/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9353887/

Giorgos Bamias ¹, Evanthia Zampeli ², Eugeni Domènech ³ Expert Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol  2022 Jul 19;1-15. doi: 10.1080/17474124.2022.2100759.

Introduction: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic immune-mediated disease of the gastrointestinal tract comprising Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). While any part of the digestive tract can be affected in CD, mucosal inflammation in UC is limited to the colon. Differences and similarities between the two conditions are reflected by their pathophysiology. Areas covered: An overview of immunological aspects, pharmacological management, and biomarkers of IBD is provided. The role of adsorptive granulocyte and monocyte apheresis (GMA) is reviewed including its primary and secondary effects on the immune system, as well as clinical studies in IBD (mainly UC), and potential biomarkers for adsorptive GMA. Expert opinion: In UC, adsorptive GMA with Adacolumn (Adacolumn®, JIMRO Co., Ltd. Takasaki, Gunma, Japan) selectively depletes elevated myeloid lineage leukocytes and has a range of beneficial secondary immune effects. Adsorptive GMA is a safe and effective non-pharmacological treatment option for UC. Pilot studies have reported promising results for adsorptive GMA in combination with biological agents, although larger studies are required. Fecal calprotectin concentrations, neutrophil counts in histological samples and/or the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio in peripheral blood may prove to be useful biomarkers for predicting GMA effectiveness in the future.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35833363/

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epub/10.1080/17474124.2022.2100759?needAccess=true

Francesca Ferretti ¹, Rosanna Cannatelli ¹, Maria Camilla Monico ¹, Giovanni Maconi ¹, Sandro Ardizzone 

J Clin Med  2022 Apr 20;11(9):2302. doi: 10.3390/jcm11092302.

The main goals of Ulcerative Colitis (UC) treatment are to both induce and maintain the clinical and endoscopic remission of disease, reduce the incidence of complications such as dysplasia and colorectal carcinoma and improve quality of life. Although a curative medical treatment for UC has not yet been found, new therapeutic strategies addressing specific pathogenetic mechanisms of disease are emerging. Notwithstanding these novel therapies, non-biological conventional drugs remain a mainstay of treatment. The aim of this review is to summarize current therapeutic strategies used as treatment for ulcerative colitis and to briefly focus on emerging therapeutic strategies, including novel biologic therapies and small molecules. To date, multiple therapeutic approaches can be adopted in UC and the range of available compounds is constantly increasing. In this era, the realization of well-designed comparative clinical trials, as well as the definition of specific therapeutic models, would be strongly suggested in order to achieve personalized management for UC patients. They also presented other non-Pharmacological Therapies for UC including probiotics, cytapheresis and fecal transplantation.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35566428/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9104748/

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/

Rafael Martín-Masot, MD, *Pilar Ortiz Pérez, MD, *Encarnación Torcuato Rubio, MD,
*Javier Blasco Alonso, PhD, *Marta Herrador López, †Carmen Gallego Fernández, PhD,
and *Víctor Manuel Navas-López, PhD, DOI: 10.1097/PG9.0000000000000100

Chronically active ulcerative colitis (UC) constitutes a challenge in an era where medical therapeutic options have increased while experience with colectomies has decreased. The change in the therapeutic paradigm of the disease means that patients with chronically active UC are being managed waiting to find their therapeutic target. We present 2 cases of children with chronically active UC who did not respond to intravenous steroids nor sequential therapy. A response was obtained with ustekinumab and tofacitinib, 2 drugs widely used in adults but still with little evidence in children. Highlighting the important role of patients and their families helped decision making, facilitating the work of the medical team. With multidisciplinary
management and close follow-up, they have been able to avoid surgery entering complete clinical remission.

https://journals.lww.com/jpgnr/fulltext/2021/08000/the_new_molecules_are_changing_the_course_of.25.aspx

Outtier A, Ferrante M, Clin Exp Gastroenterol. 2021; 14: 277–290. Doi.:10.2147/CEG.S219556

Pouchitis can be suspected based on clinical symptoms and laboratory findings, but should be confirmed with endoscopy and histology. Clear definitions should be used to classify pouchitis into acute versus chronic, and responsive versus dependent versus refractory to antibiotics. Before treatment is started for chronic antibiotic-refractory pouchitis, secondary causes should be ruled out. Also, scoring the disease, taking into account the quality of life of the patient, should guide you in choosing the best treatment option for your patient.

Managing patients with chronic antibiotic-refractory pouchitis remains a challenge for the treating gastroenterologist or abdominal surgeon. Because chronic antibiotic-refractory pouchitis is mainly immune mediated, therapeutic options are similar to the treatment strategies for inflammatory bowel diseases. Treatments with antibiotics, aminosalicylates, steroids, immunomodulators and biologics has been shown to be effective for chronic antibiotic-refractory pouchitis. Also, treatments with AST-120, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, tacrolimus enemas, and granulocyte and monocyte apheresis suggested some efficacy. The available data are weak but suggest that therapeutic options for chronic antibiotic-refractory pouchitis are similar to the treatment strategies for inflammatory bowel diseases. However, randomized controlled trials are warranted to further identify the best treatment options in this patient population.

Chronic Antibiotic-Refractory Pouchitis: Management Challenges | CEG (dovepress.com)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8213947/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8213947/pdf/ceg-14-277.pdf

ISFA-E-ISFA 2021

To our knowledge this is the first report of adding GMA to restore the efficacy of infliximab in patients with LoR.  However, the efficacy outcomes following addition of a non-drug GMA to infliximab is potentially very interesting in therapeutic settings and should inspire further studies

https://www.eventclass.org/contxt_eisfa2021/online-program/session?s=S-05

Kentaro Tominaga, Kenya Kamimura, Hiroki Sato, Masayoshi Ko, Yuzo Kawata, Takeshi Mizusawa, Junji Yokoyama, and Shuji Terai, World J Clin Cases. 2020 Jun 6; 8(11): 2092–2101.

Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) is a neutrophilic dermatosis clinically characterized by the presence of painful skin ulcerations with erythematous. As it is frequently associated with inflammatory bowel diseases, including ulcerative colitis, gastroenterologists should be familiar with the disease including therapeutic options. Pyoderma gangrenosum is one of the neutrophilic dermatoses often complicated with ulcerative colitis. The corticosteroid and other immune modulator have been used for the treatment, however, as its disease mechanism has not been clarified, there is no additional option for those who showed poor response and refractory to the conventional therapies. Therefore, we have conducted a review focusing on the cytapheresis for PG in cases of inflammatory bowel diseases. A literature search was conducted to extract studies published in the last 20 years, with information on demographics, clinical symptoms, treatment, and the clinical course from a total of 22 cases reported and our recent case. In most patients, cytapheresis was associated with improvement or resolution of PG after failure of conventional therapeutic options such as corticosteroids, antibiotics, immunosuppressive agents and immunoglobulin. Based on the recent reports, we have summarized the clinical course of 23 cases and efficacy of cytapheresis..Cytapheresis is helpful in the majority of patients with PG refractory to medical treatment associated with inflammatory bowel diseases and could be further studied in a multicenter, randomized trial.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7281039/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7281039/pdf/WJCC-8-2092.pdf

Kazuaki Inoue, Tomoki Furuya, Yoko Yokoyama

The apheresis guidelines for digestive diseases are divided into the following four fields: acute liver failure (ALF); ascites; acute pancreatitis (AP); inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

IBD: Ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD) are the major forms of I BD. Although their etiology is still not fully understood, activated leukocytes are significant factors in their exacerbations. In Japan, granulocyte and monocyte apheresis (GMA) and leukocytapheresis (LCAP) are approved for IBD treatment. They are recommended for remission induction in UC
patients with mild-to-moderate activity, whether steroid-resistant or -dependent. Although GMA is recommended for remission induction in colonic type CD refractory to conventional therapy, its efficacy is lower than in UC patients.

poster at ISFA 2019 pag 100-101

http://www.atalacia.com/isfa/data/abstract.pdf