Tomotaka Tanaka ¹, Daiki Hirano ¹, Syohei Ishimaru ¹, Keiko Arataki ¹

Cureus 2025 Jan 18;17(1):e77641. doi: 10.7759/cureus.77641. eCollection 2025 Jan.

We report the case of a 37-year-old male patient diagnosed with moderate left-sided ulcerative colitis (UC). Initial therapy with 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) was terminated within days due to exacerbation of symptoms, leading to a diagnosis of 5-ASA intolerance. Although induction of remission was achieved with prednisolone, the patient developed steroid dependency. Treatment with vedolizumab and ustekinumab subsequently failed to achieve clinical or endoscopic improvement. Intensive granulocyte and monocyte apheresis (GMA) was introduced, successfully inducing remission. However, during maintenance therapy with GMA, the patient experienced a relapse. Initiation of golimumab yielded suboptimal results, necessitating a combination therapy involving prednisolone and reintensified intensive GMA. This multimodal approach successfully achieved remission induction and maintenance. This case highlights the potential utility of intensive GMA in combination with golimumab and prednisolone for the management of refractory UC, particularly in patients with 5-ASA intolerance and failure of multiple biologic agents. A brief review of the relevant literature is included.

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/

Esteban Sáez-González ¹, Mariam Aguas ², José M Huguet ³, Pilar Nos ⁴, Belén Beltrán ² , Dig Liver Dis. 2018 Apr;50(4):415-417.

We have reported the first case of using GMA in combination with vedolizumab in a patient with active, steroid-dependent UC with an inadequate response to vedolizumab and previous biologic failure to adalimumab and infliximab, achieving remission in the follow-up. It is believed that the primary consequence of GMA therapy is a selective depletion of certain subsets of myeloid leucocytes, the most relevant of which could be the CD14+ CD16+ DR++phenotype, also known as the proinflammatory monocytes.This selective depletion of circulating leucocytes could enhance the reduction of gut trafficking of leucocytes induced by vedolizumab and modify the concentration of proinflammatory cytokines. In this clinical context, GMA therapy could be a safe, on pharmacological treatment that could help to reduce the inflammatory load, thereby enhancing the effect of biologic drugs.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29397323/

https://www.dldjournalonline.com/article/S1590-8658(18)30138-5/fulltext