Rheumatology News

VIENNA — While there is no doubt that some people with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) have axial symptoms, data presented at the annual European Congress of Rheumatology do not appear to add much to what is already known about axial PsA or to further the cause of differentiating it from axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA).

In both the AXIS study and Reuma.pt, around one in three patients with PsA were found to have axial involvement. Notably, the percentage of people with axial PsA was found to vary according to how imaging information was interpreted in the AXIS study. Both studies were discussed during the Axial Involvement in PsA and SpA session at EULAR 2024.
 

The One-Million-Dollar Question

“So, the one-million-dollar question: What is it, really?” Philippe Carron, MD, PhD, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium, said in the presentation that started the session. Despite PsA being described more than 60 years ago, “we still have no internationally accepted definition or a consensus on how we should define these patients and how we should screen them,” he said.

“There are some believers that it is just a form of axial SpA with concomitant psoriasis, but also some people that think that the axial PsA is a typical disease, with typical characteristics which are different from axial disease,” Dr. Carron said.

The lack of consensus makes it difficult to estimate just how many people have axial PsA. Reported prevalences range from 5% to 70%, “all caused by which criteria that you’re using to define axial involvement,” Dr. Carron added.

There are, however, two things that can be agreed upon, according to Dr. Carron. First, the prevalence of axial involvement in people with early PsA is “much, much lower” than that of more established disease. Second, exclusive axial involvement is seen in “just a minority of PsA patients.” Most people with axial disease also have peripheral disease, he added.

Imaging findings in axial PsA “are quite similar to those seen in axial SpA,” although Dr. Carron also said that there were some distinct differences. Radiographic sacroiliitis occurs in around 25%-50% of people with axial PsA, and atypical syndesmophytes are more often found in people with axial PsA than in those with axSpA.
 

Shared Characteristics

But are axial PsA and axSpA separate diseases or part of the same disease continuum? That’s a question that is still very much open for debate, said Sofia Ramiro, MD, PhD, a senior researcher at Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands, and rheumatology consultant at Zuyderland Medical Center in Heerlen, the Netherlands.

While many studies have looked to answer this question, there is a big methodological problem — the studies largely cannot be compared as they have used different definitions of axSpA.

Take a patient with inflammatory back pain, psoriasis, and oligoarthritis, Dr. Ramiro said. If the patient goes to one rheumatologist, they may get a diagnosis of axSpA, but if they go to a different rheumatologist, they may get a diagnosis of axial PsA.

“This is influenced by training, expertise, by beliefs, and by belonging to ASAS [Assessment of Spondyloarthritis International Society] or to GRAPPA [Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis],” Dr. Ramiro suggested. It’s “a diagnostic bias” that is very difficult to overcome and makes direct comparisons between patient populations recruited into clinical studies “extremely challenging.”

To confuse matters more, axial PsA and axSpA share common characteristics: Inflammatory back pain, HLA-B27 positivity, elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) or a higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and structural lesions in the sacroiliac joints and spine.
 

AXIS Study ‘Gives Answers’

More research into factors associated with axial PsA need to be performed to try to help define the condition and enable classification and ultimately treatment guidelines. This is where the AXIS study comes in.

The AXIS study is a joint project of ASAS and GRAPPA that was started in January 2019 with the aim of defining a homogeneous subgroup of patients who could be studied.

“The objectives of the AXIS study are to determine the frequency of axial involvement in patients with PsA; to identify the frequency of active inflammatory and structural changes on imaging; and to identify factors associated with the presence of axial involvement in PsA,” Murat Torgutalp, MD, of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany, said at EULAR 2024.

The study population consisted of 409 consecutively recruited patients diagnosed with PsA according to CASPAR (Classification for Psoriatic Arthritis) criteria; all have had PsA for up to 10 years and were untreated with biologic or targeted synthetic disease modifying drugs at the time of inclusion.

Dr. Torgutalp, who is the study’s primary research coordinator, reported that a diagnosis of PsA was made in 37% of the population when local investigators considered available clinical, laboratory, and imaging data. However, patients’ imaging data were also centrally assessed, and when the local investigators were party to the expert imaging interpretations, the percentage of people diagnosed with PsA dropped to 27%.

“When we looked at the clinical characteristics, the presence of the back pain, particularly inflammatory back pain, HLA-B27 positivity, elevated CRP, and presence of active, inflammatory and structural changes in the sacroiliac joints and spine were associated with the final conclusion on the presence of axial involvement,” Dr. Torgutalp said.

Despite the title of his presentation being “The Axis Study Gives Answers,” Dr. Torgutalp presented lots of data without giving much insight into how they might be used. He concluded that “overall, there was a trend toward overestimation of the presence of imaging changes indicative of axial involvement across all imaging modalities” by the local investigators.

Dennis McGonagle, MB, MCH, BAO, PhD, of the University of Leeds, Leeds, England,said in an interview that the AXIS study “is a noble, international effort across multiple countries to try and better understand axial PsA.”

Dr. McGonagle, who was not involved in the study, added: “A lot of data are being generated, and a lot of analysis needs to be done to drill down to get a clear message that could influence practice.”
 

Axial PsA in the Portuguese Population

Separately, Catarina Abreu, a rheumatology intern at Hospital Garcia de Orta, Almada, Portugal, presented some real-world data on axial PsA from Reuma.pt.

Of 2304 patients, 854 (37.1%) reportedly had axial PsA, which had been defined as physician-reported spondylitis or the presence of imaging findings suggestive of axial involvement. This included radiographic- or MRI-detected sacroiliitis or syndesmophytes seen on axial x-rays.

The majority (78.2%) of those with an axial PsA diagnosis had concomitant peripheral involvement, with 8.1% having exclusive axial disease.

About 70% of the axial PsA diagnoses had been made using clinical or laboratory findings alone, and 30% of diagnoses was based on imaging results. Of the latter, Ms. Abreu noted that patients who had imaging data available were more likely to be HLA-B27 positive and less likely to have dactylitis, with respective odds ratios (ORs) of 3.10 and 2.42.

Individuals with axial PsA were more likely to have enthesitis (OR, 1.92), although no data were available on whether this was axial or peripheral enthesitis. Tobacco exposure was also linked to an increased chance of having axial PsA (OR, 1.66).

Ms. Abreu noted that the “scarce number of available imaging exams” and other missing data in Reuma.pt may have led to an underdiagnosis of axial PsA.

“The difference that we found between axial and peripheral [PsA] are similar to the differences found in other studies that compared axial psoriatic arthritis with axial spondyloarthritis,” Ms. Abreu said.

“So, we leave with the question that was already left before here: If these are different diseases or just different phenotypes of the same disease, and what implications will this have in the future?” Ms. Abreu concluded.

Dr. Carron received educational grants, speaker fees, or honoraria for other consultancy work from AbbVie, UCB, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Janssen, and Galapagos/Alfasigma. Dr. Ramiro is an ASAS executive committee member and received research grants or consulting/speaker fees from AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Galapagos, Janssen, Merck Sharp and Dohme, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi, and UCB. AXIS is supported by unrestricted research grants from AbbVie, Galapagos, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, and UCB. Dr. Torgutalp is the primary research coordinator for the study; he reported no financial conflicts of interest. The Reuma.pt registry was developed with the financial support of the pharmaceutical industry and is currently supported by AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, Merck Sharp and Dohme, Novartis, Pfizer, and Sobi. Ms. Abreu reported no financial conflicts of interest.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

VIENNA — While there is no doubt that some people with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) have axial symptoms, data presented at the annual European Congress of Rheumatology do not appear to add much to what is already known about axial PsA or to further the cause of differentiating it from axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA).

In both the AXIS study and Reuma.pt, around one in three patients with PsA were found to have axial involvement. Notably, the percentage of people with axial PsA was found to vary according to how imaging information was interpreted in the AXIS study. Both studies were discussed during the Axial Involvement in PsA and SpA session at EULAR 2024.
 

The One-Million-Dollar Question

“So, the one-million-dollar question: What is it, really?” Philippe Carron, MD, PhD, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium, said in the presentation that started the session. Despite PsA being described more than 60 years ago, “we still have no internationally accepted definition or a consensus on how we should define these patients and how we should screen them,” he said.

“There are some believers that it is just a form of axial SpA with concomitant psoriasis, but also some people that think that the axial PsA is a typical disease, with typical characteristics which are different from axial disease,” Dr. Carron said.

The lack of consensus makes it difficult to estimate just how many people have axial PsA. Reported prevalences range from 5% to 70%, “all caused by which criteria that you’re using to define axial involvement,” Dr. Carron added.

There are, however, two things that can be agreed upon, according to Dr. Carron. First, the prevalence of axial involvement in people with early PsA is “much, much lower” than that of more established disease. Second, exclusive axial involvement is seen in “just a minority of PsA patients.” Most people with axial disease also have peripheral disease, he added.

Imaging findings in axial PsA “are quite similar to those seen in axial SpA,” although Dr. Carron also said that there were some distinct differences. Radiographic sacroiliitis occurs in around 25%-50% of people with axial PsA, and atypical syndesmophytes are more often found in people with axial PsA than in those with axSpA.
 

Shared Characteristics

But are axial PsA and axSpA separate diseases or part of the same disease continuum? That’s a question that is still very much open for debate, said Sofia Ramiro, MD, PhD, a senior researcher at Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands, and rheumatology consultant at Zuyderland Medical Center in Heerlen, the Netherlands.

While many studies have looked to answer this question, there is a big methodological problem — the studies largely cannot be compared as they have used different definitions of axSpA.

Take a patient with inflammatory back pain, psoriasis, and oligoarthritis, Dr. Ramiro said. If the patient goes to one rheumatologist, they may get a diagnosis of axSpA, but if they go to a different rheumatologist, they may get a diagnosis of axial PsA.

“This is influenced by training, expertise, by beliefs, and by belonging to ASAS [Assessment of Spondyloarthritis International Society] or to GRAPPA [Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis],” Dr. Ramiro suggested. It’s “a diagnostic bias” that is very difficult to overcome and makes direct comparisons between patient populations recruited into clinical studies “extremely challenging.”

To confuse matters more, axial PsA and axSpA share common characteristics: Inflammatory back pain, HLA-B27 positivity, elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) or a higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and structural lesions in the sacroiliac joints and spine.
 

AXIS Study ‘Gives Answers’

More research into factors associated with axial PsA need to be performed to try to help define the condition and enable classification and ultimately treatment guidelines. This is where the AXIS study comes in.

The AXIS study is a joint project of ASAS and GRAPPA that was started in January 2019 with the aim of defining a homogeneous subgroup of patients who could be studied.

“The objectives of the AXIS study are to determine the frequency of axial involvement in patients with PsA; to identify the frequency of active inflammatory and structural changes on imaging; and to identify factors associated with the presence of axial involvement in PsA,” Murat Torgutalp, MD, of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany, said at EULAR 2024.

The study population consisted of 409 consecutively recruited patients diagnosed with PsA according to CASPAR (Classification for Psoriatic Arthritis) criteria; all have had PsA for up to 10 years and were untreated with biologic or targeted synthetic disease modifying drugs at the time of inclusion.

Dr. Torgutalp, who is the study’s primary research coordinator, reported that a diagnosis of PsA was made in 37% of the population when local investigators considered available clinical, laboratory, and imaging data. However, patients’ imaging data were also centrally assessed, and when the local investigators were party to the expert imaging interpretations, the percentage of people diagnosed with PsA dropped to 27%.

“When we looked at the clinical characteristics, the presence of the back pain, particularly inflammatory back pain, HLA-B27 positivity, elevated CRP, and presence of active, inflammatory and structural changes in the sacroiliac joints and spine were associated with the final conclusion on the presence of axial involvement,” Dr. Torgutalp said.

Despite the title of his presentation being “The Axis Study Gives Answers,” Dr. Torgutalp presented lots of data without giving much insight into how they might be used. He concluded that “overall, there was a trend toward overestimation of the presence of imaging changes indicative of axial involvement across all imaging modalities” by the local investigators.

Dennis McGonagle, MB, MCH, BAO, PhD, of the University of Leeds, Leeds, England,said in an interview that the AXIS study “is a noble, international effort across multiple countries to try and better understand axial PsA.”

Dr. McGonagle, who was not involved in the study, added: “A lot of data are being generated, and a lot of analysis needs to be done to drill down to get a clear message that could influence practice.”
 

Axial PsA in the Portuguese Population

Separately, Catarina Abreu, a rheumatology intern at Hospital Garcia de Orta, Almada, Portugal, presented some real-world data on axial PsA from Reuma.pt.

Of 2304 patients, 854 (37.1%) reportedly had axial PsA, which had been defined as physician-reported spondylitis or the presence of imaging findings suggestive of axial involvement. This included radiographic- or MRI-detected sacroiliitis or syndesmophytes seen on axial x-rays.

The majority (78.2%) of those with an axial PsA diagnosis had concomitant peripheral involvement, with 8.1% having exclusive axial disease.

About 70% of the axial PsA diagnoses had been made using clinical or laboratory findings alone, and 30% of diagnoses was based on imaging results. Of the latter, Ms. Abreu noted that patients who had imaging data available were more likely to be HLA-B27 positive and less likely to have dactylitis, with respective odds ratios (ORs) of 3.10 and 2.42.

Individuals with axial PsA were more likely to have enthesitis (OR, 1.92), although no data were available on whether this was axial or peripheral enthesitis. Tobacco exposure was also linked to an increased chance of having axial PsA (OR, 1.66).

Ms. Abreu noted that the “scarce number of available imaging exams” and other missing data in Reuma.pt may have led to an underdiagnosis of axial PsA.

“The difference that we found between axial and peripheral [PsA] are similar to the differences found in other studies that compared axial psoriatic arthritis with axial spondyloarthritis,” Ms. Abreu said.

“So, we leave with the question that was already left before here: If these are different diseases or just different phenotypes of the same disease, and what implications will this have in the future?” Ms. Abreu concluded.

Dr. Carron received educational grants, speaker fees, or honoraria for other consultancy work from AbbVie, UCB, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Janssen, and Galapagos/Alfasigma. Dr. Ramiro is an ASAS executive committee member and received research grants or consulting/speaker fees from AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Galapagos, Janssen, Merck Sharp and Dohme, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi, and UCB. AXIS is supported by unrestricted research grants from AbbVie, Galapagos, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, and UCB. Dr. Torgutalp is the primary research coordinator for the study; he reported no financial conflicts of interest. The Reuma.pt registry was developed with the financial support of the pharmaceutical industry and is currently supported by AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, Merck Sharp and Dohme, Novartis, Pfizer, and Sobi. Ms. Abreu reported no financial conflicts of interest.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

VIENNA — While there is no doubt that some people with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) have axial symptoms, data presented at the annual European Congress of Rheumatology do not appear to add much to what is already known about axial PsA or to further the cause of differentiating it from axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA).

In both the AXIS study and Reuma.pt, around one in three patients with PsA were found to have axial involvement. Notably, the percentage of people with axial PsA was found to vary according to how imaging information was interpreted in the AXIS study. Both studies were discussed during the Axial Involvement in PsA and SpA session at EULAR 2024.
 

The One-Million-Dollar Question

“So, the one-million-dollar question: What is it, really?” Philippe Carron, MD, PhD, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium, said in the presentation that started the session. Despite PsA being described more than 60 years ago, “we still have no internationally accepted definition or a consensus on how we should define these patients and how we should screen them,” he said.

“There are some believers that it is just a form of axial SpA with concomitant psoriasis, but also some people that think that the axial PsA is a typical disease, with typical characteristics which are different from axial disease,” Dr. Carron said.

The lack of consensus makes it difficult to estimate just how many people have axial PsA. Reported prevalences range from 5% to 70%, “all caused by which criteria that you’re using to define axial involvement,” Dr. Carron added.

There are, however, two things that can be agreed upon, according to Dr. Carron. First, the prevalence of axial involvement in people with early PsA is “much, much lower” than that of more established disease. Second, exclusive axial involvement is seen in “just a minority of PsA patients.” Most people with axial disease also have peripheral disease, he added.

Imaging findings in axial PsA “are quite similar to those seen in axial SpA,” although Dr. Carron also said that there were some distinct differences. Radiographic sacroiliitis occurs in around 25%-50% of people with axial PsA, and atypical syndesmophytes are more often found in people with axial PsA than in those with axSpA.
 

Shared Characteristics

But are axial PsA and axSpA separate diseases or part of the same disease continuum? That’s a question that is still very much open for debate, said Sofia Ramiro, MD, PhD, a senior researcher at Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands, and rheumatology consultant at Zuyderland Medical Center in Heerlen, the Netherlands.

While many studies have looked to answer this question, there is a big methodological problem — the studies largely cannot be compared as they have used different definitions of axSpA.

Take a patient with inflammatory back pain, psoriasis, and oligoarthritis, Dr. Ramiro said. If the patient goes to one rheumatologist, they may get a diagnosis of axSpA, but if they go to a different rheumatologist, they may get a diagnosis of axial PsA.

“This is influenced by training, expertise, by beliefs, and by belonging to ASAS [Assessment of Spondyloarthritis International Society] or to GRAPPA [Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis],” Dr. Ramiro suggested. It’s “a diagnostic bias” that is very difficult to overcome and makes direct comparisons between patient populations recruited into clinical studies “extremely challenging.”

To confuse matters more, axial PsA and axSpA share common characteristics: Inflammatory back pain, HLA-B27 positivity, elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) or a higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and structural lesions in the sacroiliac joints and spine.
 

AXIS Study ‘Gives Answers’

More research into factors associated with axial PsA need to be performed to try to help define the condition and enable classification and ultimately treatment guidelines. This is where the AXIS study comes in.

The AXIS study is a joint project of ASAS and GRAPPA that was started in January 2019 with the aim of defining a homogeneous subgroup of patients who could be studied.

“The objectives of the AXIS study are to determine the frequency of axial involvement in patients with PsA; to identify the frequency of active inflammatory and structural changes on imaging; and to identify factors associated with the presence of axial involvement in PsA,” Murat Torgutalp, MD, of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany, said at EULAR 2024.

The study population consisted of 409 consecutively recruited patients diagnosed with PsA according to CASPAR (Classification for Psoriatic Arthritis) criteria; all have had PsA for up to 10 years and were untreated with biologic or targeted synthetic disease modifying drugs at the time of inclusion.

Dr. Torgutalp, who is the study’s primary research coordinator, reported that a diagnosis of PsA was made in 37% of the population when local investigators considered available clinical, laboratory, and imaging data. However, patients’ imaging data were also centrally assessed, and when the local investigators were party to the expert imaging interpretations, the percentage of people diagnosed with PsA dropped to 27%.

“When we looked at the clinical characteristics, the presence of the back pain, particularly inflammatory back pain, HLA-B27 positivity, elevated CRP, and presence of active, inflammatory and structural changes in the sacroiliac joints and spine were associated with the final conclusion on the presence of axial involvement,” Dr. Torgutalp said.

Despite the title of his presentation being “The Axis Study Gives Answers,” Dr. Torgutalp presented lots of data without giving much insight into how they might be used. He concluded that “overall, there was a trend toward overestimation of the presence of imaging changes indicative of axial involvement across all imaging modalities” by the local investigators.

Dennis McGonagle, MB, MCH, BAO, PhD, of the University of Leeds, Leeds, England,said in an interview that the AXIS study “is a noble, international effort across multiple countries to try and better understand axial PsA.”

Dr. McGonagle, who was not involved in the study, added: “A lot of data are being generated, and a lot of analysis needs to be done to drill down to get a clear message that could influence practice.”
 

Axial PsA in the Portuguese Population

Separately, Catarina Abreu, a rheumatology intern at Hospital Garcia de Orta, Almada, Portugal, presented some real-world data on axial PsA from Reuma.pt.

Of 2304 patients, 854 (37.1%) reportedly had axial PsA, which had been defined as physician-reported spondylitis or the presence of imaging findings suggestive of axial involvement. This included radiographic- or MRI-detected sacroiliitis or syndesmophytes seen on axial x-rays.

The majority (78.2%) of those with an axial PsA diagnosis had concomitant peripheral involvement, with 8.1% having exclusive axial disease.

About 70% of the axial PsA diagnoses had been made using clinical or laboratory findings alone, and 30% of diagnoses was based on imaging results. Of the latter, Ms. Abreu noted that patients who had imaging data available were more likely to be HLA-B27 positive and less likely to have dactylitis, with respective odds ratios (ORs) of 3.10 and 2.42.

Individuals with axial PsA were more likely to have enthesitis (OR, 1.92), although no data were available on whether this was axial or peripheral enthesitis. Tobacco exposure was also linked to an increased chance of having axial PsA (OR, 1.66).

Ms. Abreu noted that the “scarce number of available imaging exams” and other missing data in Reuma.pt may have led to an underdiagnosis of axial PsA.

“The difference that we found between axial and peripheral [PsA] are similar to the differences found in other studies that compared axial psoriatic arthritis with axial spondyloarthritis,” Ms. Abreu said.

“So, we leave with the question that was already left before here: If these are different diseases or just different phenotypes of the same disease, and what implications will this have in the future?” Ms. Abreu concluded.

Dr. Carron received educational grants, speaker fees, or honoraria for other consultancy work from AbbVie, UCB, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Janssen, and Galapagos/Alfasigma. Dr. Ramiro is an ASAS executive committee member and received research grants or consulting/speaker fees from AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Galapagos, Janssen, Merck Sharp and Dohme, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi, and UCB. AXIS is supported by unrestricted research grants from AbbVie, Galapagos, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, and UCB. Dr. Torgutalp is the primary research coordinator for the study; he reported no financial conflicts of interest. The Reuma.pt registry was developed with the financial support of the pharmaceutical industry and is currently supported by AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, Merck Sharp and Dohme, Novartis, Pfizer, and Sobi. Ms. Abreu reported no financial conflicts of interest.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Sedentary behavior, particularly sitting and watching television, is linked to lower odds of healthy aging, but substituting it with any physical activity — or even sleeping, in case of women with inadequate sleep — may lead to better overall health.

METHODOLOGY:

• Previous studies have shown that replacing sedentary behavior with physical activity may improve mortality outcomes, but whether this increased lifespan is accompanied by better overall health remains an unanswered question.
• To understand the impact of sedentary behavior and physical activity on healthy aging, researchers analyzed data from the prospective cohort Nurses’ Health Study.
• They included 45,176 women aged > 50 years in 1992 (mean age, 59.2 years) who were free of major chronic diseases and were followed up for 20 years.
• In 1992, validated questionnaires were used to record exposure to sedentary behavior, different levels of physical activity, and sleep. The time spent watching television was the primary exposure in the sedentary behavior category.
• The main outcome was healthy aging, defined as survival to ≥ 70 years of age and maintenance of four domains of health — being free of 11 main chronic diseases and having no impairment of subjective memory, physical function, or mental health.

TAKEAWAY:

• At 20 years of follow-up, 8.6% of the women achieved healthy aging, while 41.4% had none of the 11 chronic diseases, 16.1% had no physical function impairment, 44.1% had no mental health limitation, and 51.9% reported no memory impairment.
• For each increase of 2 hours per day spent sitting and watching television, the odds of healthy aging dropped by 12% (95% confidence interval [CI], 7%-17%).
• Conversely, every additional 2 hours per day of low-level physical activity at work upped the odds of healthy aging by 6% (95% CI, 3%-9%); furthermore, each extra hour per day of standardized moderate to vigorous physical activity (normal pace walking or the equivalent) was associated with 14% higher odds (95% CI, 11%-16%) of healthy aging.
• In a theoretical modeling analysis, individuals could increase their odds of healthy aging by replacing 1 hour of television time per day with low levels of physical activity at home and work or with moderate to vigorous levels of physical activity — or even sleeping, for those who slept for ≤ 7 hours.

IN PRACTICE:

“These findings expand on the literature reporting that replacing sedentary behavior with light or moderate to vigorous physical activity is associated with decreased mortality by suggesting that this increased lifespan might be accompanied by better overall health,” the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

Hongying Shi, PhD, Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China, led this study, which was published online in JAMA Network Open.

LIMITATIONS:

The measures of different behaviors were self-reported and may, therefore, be less accurate than objective measurement methods. Measurement error may have attenuated the effect of low levels of physical activity. The single exposure assessment at baseline may not reflect the long-term pattern of these activities.

DISCLOSURES:

The lead author was supported by the National Social Science Foundation Project of China and the Zhejiang Provincial Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Project. A co-author and the Nurses’ Health Study were supported by the US National Institutes of Health. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Sedentary behavior, particularly sitting and watching television, is linked to lower odds of healthy aging, but substituting it with any physical activity — or even sleeping, in case of women with inadequate sleep — may lead to better overall health.

METHODOLOGY:

• Previous studies have shown that replacing sedentary behavior with physical activity may improve mortality outcomes, but whether this increased lifespan is accompanied by better overall health remains an unanswered question.
• To understand the impact of sedentary behavior and physical activity on healthy aging, researchers analyzed data from the prospective cohort Nurses’ Health Study.
• They included 45,176 women aged > 50 years in 1992 (mean age, 59.2 years) who were free of major chronic diseases and were followed up for 20 years.
• In 1992, validated questionnaires were used to record exposure to sedentary behavior, different levels of physical activity, and sleep. The time spent watching television was the primary exposure in the sedentary behavior category.
• The main outcome was healthy aging, defined as survival to ≥ 70 years of age and maintenance of four domains of health — being free of 11 main chronic diseases and having no impairment of subjective memory, physical function, or mental health.

TAKEAWAY:

• At 20 years of follow-up, 8.6% of the women achieved healthy aging, while 41.4% had none of the 11 chronic diseases, 16.1% had no physical function impairment, 44.1% had no mental health limitation, and 51.9% reported no memory impairment.
• For each increase of 2 hours per day spent sitting and watching television, the odds of healthy aging dropped by 12% (95% confidence interval [CI], 7%-17%).
• Conversely, every additional 2 hours per day of low-level physical activity at work upped the odds of healthy aging by 6% (95% CI, 3%-9%); furthermore, each extra hour per day of standardized moderate to vigorous physical activity (normal pace walking or the equivalent) was associated with 14% higher odds (95% CI, 11%-16%) of healthy aging.
• In a theoretical modeling analysis, individuals could increase their odds of healthy aging by replacing 1 hour of television time per day with low levels of physical activity at home and work or with moderate to vigorous levels of physical activity — or even sleeping, for those who slept for ≤ 7 hours.

IN PRACTICE:

“These findings expand on the literature reporting that replacing sedentary behavior with light or moderate to vigorous physical activity is associated with decreased mortality by suggesting that this increased lifespan might be accompanied by better overall health,” the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

Hongying Shi, PhD, Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China, led this study, which was published online in JAMA Network Open.

LIMITATIONS:

The measures of different behaviors were self-reported and may, therefore, be less accurate than objective measurement methods. Measurement error may have attenuated the effect of low levels of physical activity. The single exposure assessment at baseline may not reflect the long-term pattern of these activities.

DISCLOSURES:

The lead author was supported by the National Social Science Foundation Project of China and the Zhejiang Provincial Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Project. A co-author and the Nurses’ Health Study were supported by the US National Institutes of Health. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Sedentary behavior, particularly sitting and watching television, is linked to lower odds of healthy aging, but substituting it with any physical activity — or even sleeping, in case of women with inadequate sleep — may lead to better overall health.

METHODOLOGY:

• Previous studies have shown that replacing sedentary behavior with physical activity may improve mortality outcomes, but whether this increased lifespan is accompanied by better overall health remains an unanswered question.
• To understand the impact of sedentary behavior and physical activity on healthy aging, researchers analyzed data from the prospective cohort Nurses’ Health Study.
• They included 45,176 women aged > 50 years in 1992 (mean age, 59.2 years) who were free of major chronic diseases and were followed up for 20 years.
• In 1992, validated questionnaires were used to record exposure to sedentary behavior, different levels of physical activity, and sleep. The time spent watching television was the primary exposure in the sedentary behavior category.
• The main outcome was healthy aging, defined as survival to ≥ 70 years of age and maintenance of four domains of health — being free of 11 main chronic diseases and having no impairment of subjective memory, physical function, or mental health.

TAKEAWAY:

• At 20 years of follow-up, 8.6% of the women achieved healthy aging, while 41.4% had none of the 11 chronic diseases, 16.1% had no physical function impairment, 44.1% had no mental health limitation, and 51.9% reported no memory impairment.
• For each increase of 2 hours per day spent sitting and watching television, the odds of healthy aging dropped by 12% (95% confidence interval [CI], 7%-17%).
• Conversely, every additional 2 hours per day of low-level physical activity at work upped the odds of healthy aging by 6% (95% CI, 3%-9%); furthermore, each extra hour per day of standardized moderate to vigorous physical activity (normal pace walking or the equivalent) was associated with 14% higher odds (95% CI, 11%-16%) of healthy aging.
• In a theoretical modeling analysis, individuals could increase their odds of healthy aging by replacing 1 hour of television time per day with low levels of physical activity at home and work or with moderate to vigorous levels of physical activity — or even sleeping, for those who slept for ≤ 7 hours.

IN PRACTICE:

“These findings expand on the literature reporting that replacing sedentary behavior with light or moderate to vigorous physical activity is associated with decreased mortality by suggesting that this increased lifespan might be accompanied by better overall health,” the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

Hongying Shi, PhD, Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China, led this study, which was published online in JAMA Network Open.

LIMITATIONS:

The measures of different behaviors were self-reported and may, therefore, be less accurate than objective measurement methods. Measurement error may have attenuated the effect of low levels of physical activity. The single exposure assessment at baseline may not reflect the long-term pattern of these activities.

DISCLOSURES:

The lead author was supported by the National Social Science Foundation Project of China and the Zhejiang Provincial Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Project. A co-author and the Nurses’ Health Study were supported by the US National Institutes of Health. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved ustekinumab-ttwe (Pyzchiva) as a biosimilar to ustekinumab (Stelara) for the treatment of multiple inflammatory conditions.

In addition, the agency “provisionally determined” that the medication would be interchangeable with the reference product but that designation would not take hold until the interchangeability exclusivity period for the first approved biosimilar ustekinumab-auub (Wezlana) expires, according to a press release. This designation would, depending on state law, allow a pharmacist to substitute the biosimilar for the reference product without involving the prescribing clinician. It’s unclear when ustekinumab-auub’s interchangeability exclusivity ends.

Wikimedia Commons/FitzColinGerald/Creative Commons License

Ustekinumab-ttwe, a human interleukin (IL)-12 and IL-23 antagonist, is indicated for the treatment of:

• Moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in adults and pediatric patients aged 6 years or older who are candidates for phototherapy or systemic therapy 
• Active psoriatic arthritis in adults and pediatric patients aged 6 years or older with moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis

It is administered via subcutaneous injection in 45 mg/0.5 mL and 90 mg/mL prefilled syringes or via intravenous infusion in 130 mg/26 mL (5 mg/mL) single-dose vial. 

Developed by Samsung Bioepis, ustekinumab-ttwe will be commercialized by Sandoz in the United States. Besides ustekinumab-auub, the other ustekinumab biosimilar is ustekinumab-aekn (Selarsdi).

Ustekinumab-ttwe is expected to launch in February 2025 “in accordance with the settlement and license agreement with Janssen Biotech,” which manufacturers the reference product, Sandoz said. The other approved ustekinumab biosimilars will launch within a similar time frame.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved ustekinumab-ttwe (Pyzchiva) as a biosimilar to ustekinumab (Stelara) for the treatment of multiple inflammatory conditions.

In addition, the agency “provisionally determined” that the medication would be interchangeable with the reference product but that designation would not take hold until the interchangeability exclusivity period for the first approved biosimilar ustekinumab-auub (Wezlana) expires, according to a press release. This designation would, depending on state law, allow a pharmacist to substitute the biosimilar for the reference product without involving the prescribing clinician. It’s unclear when ustekinumab-auub’s interchangeability exclusivity ends.

Wikimedia Commons/FitzColinGerald/Creative Commons License

Ustekinumab-ttwe, a human interleukin (IL)-12 and IL-23 antagonist, is indicated for the treatment of:

• Moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in adults and pediatric patients aged 6 years or older who are candidates for phototherapy or systemic therapy 
• Active psoriatic arthritis in adults and pediatric patients aged 6 years or older with moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis

It is administered via subcutaneous injection in 45 mg/0.5 mL and 90 mg/mL prefilled syringes or via intravenous infusion in 130 mg/26 mL (5 mg/mL) single-dose vial. 

Developed by Samsung Bioepis, ustekinumab-ttwe will be commercialized by Sandoz in the United States. Besides ustekinumab-auub, the other ustekinumab biosimilar is ustekinumab-aekn (Selarsdi).

Ustekinumab-ttwe is expected to launch in February 2025 “in accordance with the settlement and license agreement with Janssen Biotech,” which manufacturers the reference product, Sandoz said. The other approved ustekinumab biosimilars will launch within a similar time frame.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved ustekinumab-ttwe (Pyzchiva) as a biosimilar to ustekinumab (Stelara) for the treatment of multiple inflammatory conditions.

In addition, the agency “provisionally determined” that the medication would be interchangeable with the reference product but that designation would not take hold until the interchangeability exclusivity period for the first approved biosimilar ustekinumab-auub (Wezlana) expires, according to a press release. This designation would, depending on state law, allow a pharmacist to substitute the biosimilar for the reference product without involving the prescribing clinician. It’s unclear when ustekinumab-auub’s interchangeability exclusivity ends.

Wikimedia Commons/FitzColinGerald/Creative Commons License

Ustekinumab-ttwe, a human interleukin (IL)-12 and IL-23 antagonist, is indicated for the treatment of:

• Moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in adults and pediatric patients aged 6 years or older who are candidates for phototherapy or systemic therapy 
• Active psoriatic arthritis in adults and pediatric patients aged 6 years or older with moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis

It is administered via subcutaneous injection in 45 mg/0.5 mL and 90 mg/mL prefilled syringes or via intravenous infusion in 130 mg/26 mL (5 mg/mL) single-dose vial. 

Developed by Samsung Bioepis, ustekinumab-ttwe will be commercialized by Sandoz in the United States. Besides ustekinumab-auub, the other ustekinumab biosimilar is ustekinumab-aekn (Selarsdi).

Ustekinumab-ttwe is expected to launch in February 2025 “in accordance with the settlement and license agreement with Janssen Biotech,” which manufacturers the reference product, Sandoz said. The other approved ustekinumab biosimilars will launch within a similar time frame.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

People with obesity who exercise while taking glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs; liraglutide) showed increased weight loss and preserved bone health, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.

METHODOLOGY:

• Patients were placed on an initial diet that consisted of no more than 800 calories per day for 8 weeks. Those who lost at least 5% of their starting weight were then placed into a 1-year program.
• Participants included 195 adults aged between 18 and 65 years with obesity and no diabetes, 64% of whom were women.
• They were split into four groups of interventions: Exercise only (48 patients), liraglutide only (49 patients), a combination of both (49 participants), and placebo (49 participants), for a 1-year period.
• Patients received liraglutide or volume-matched placebo as daily injections starting at 0.6 mg/d with a weekly increase until 3 mg/d was reached; exercise entailed 30-minute sessions for 4 days a week.
• Researchers studied bone health at each patient’s hip, spine, and forearm after they lost weight, by measuring bone mineral density (BMD).

TAKEAWAY:

• The overall average change in weight loss over the course of 52 weeks was 7.03 kg in the placebo group, 11.19 kg in the exercise group, 13.74 kg in the liraglutide group, and 16.88 kg in the combination group.
• After the initial low-calorie diet-induced weight loss, the placebo group regained weight, the exercise and liraglutide groups maintained weight loss, and the combination group lost additional weight.
• BMD did not change in the combination group in comparison to the placebo group at the hip (mean change, −0.006 g/cm²; 95% CI, −0.017 to 0.004 g/cm²; P = .24) or spine (−0.010 g/cm²; 95% CI, −0.025 to 0.005 g/cm²; P = .20).
• BMD of the spine in the liraglutide group decreased in comparison to the exercise group (mean change, −0.016 g/cm²; 95% CI, −0.032 to −0.001 g/cm²; P = .04) and the placebo group, in addition to decreases in the hip.

IN PRACTICE:

“Our results show that the combination of exercise and GLP-1 RA was the most effective weight loss strategy while preserving bone health,” study authors wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Simon Birk Kjær Jensen, PhD, of the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and published on June 25 in JAMA Network Open.

LIMITATIONS:

The study only included adults aged between 18 and 65 years without other chronic diseases and may not apply to patients who are older or have diabetes. The study sample was diverse but was conducted in Denmark, with a population of generally similar ancestry.

DISCLOSURES:

One study author reported serving on advisory boards for AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bayer, and Amgen, among others. Other authors reported various financial interests, including grants, personal fees, and salaries, from Amgen, Novo Nordisk, and Abbott Lab, among others.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

People with obesity who exercise while taking glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs; liraglutide) showed increased weight loss and preserved bone health, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.

METHODOLOGY:

• Patients were placed on an initial diet that consisted of no more than 800 calories per day for 8 weeks. Those who lost at least 5% of their starting weight were then placed into a 1-year program.
• Participants included 195 adults aged between 18 and 65 years with obesity and no diabetes, 64% of whom were women.
• They were split into four groups of interventions: Exercise only (48 patients), liraglutide only (49 patients), a combination of both (49 participants), and placebo (49 participants), for a 1-year period.
• Patients received liraglutide or volume-matched placebo as daily injections starting at 0.6 mg/d with a weekly increase until 3 mg/d was reached; exercise entailed 30-minute sessions for 4 days a week.
• Researchers studied bone health at each patient’s hip, spine, and forearm after they lost weight, by measuring bone mineral density (BMD).

TAKEAWAY:

• The overall average change in weight loss over the course of 52 weeks was 7.03 kg in the placebo group, 11.19 kg in the exercise group, 13.74 kg in the liraglutide group, and 16.88 kg in the combination group.
• After the initial low-calorie diet-induced weight loss, the placebo group regained weight, the exercise and liraglutide groups maintained weight loss, and the combination group lost additional weight.
• BMD did not change in the combination group in comparison to the placebo group at the hip (mean change, −0.006 g/cm²; 95% CI, −0.017 to 0.004 g/cm²; P = .24) or spine (−0.010 g/cm²; 95% CI, −0.025 to 0.005 g/cm²; P = .20).
• BMD of the spine in the liraglutide group decreased in comparison to the exercise group (mean change, −0.016 g/cm²; 95% CI, −0.032 to −0.001 g/cm²; P = .04) and the placebo group, in addition to decreases in the hip.

IN PRACTICE:

“Our results show that the combination of exercise and GLP-1 RA was the most effective weight loss strategy while preserving bone health,” study authors wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Simon Birk Kjær Jensen, PhD, of the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and published on June 25 in JAMA Network Open.

LIMITATIONS:

The study only included adults aged between 18 and 65 years without other chronic diseases and may not apply to patients who are older or have diabetes. The study sample was diverse but was conducted in Denmark, with a population of generally similar ancestry.

DISCLOSURES:

One study author reported serving on advisory boards for AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bayer, and Amgen, among others. Other authors reported various financial interests, including grants, personal fees, and salaries, from Amgen, Novo Nordisk, and Abbott Lab, among others.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

People with obesity who exercise while taking glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs; liraglutide) showed increased weight loss and preserved bone health, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.

METHODOLOGY:

• Patients were placed on an initial diet that consisted of no more than 800 calories per day for 8 weeks. Those who lost at least 5% of their starting weight were then placed into a 1-year program.
• Participants included 195 adults aged between 18 and 65 years with obesity and no diabetes, 64% of whom were women.
• They were split into four groups of interventions: Exercise only (48 patients), liraglutide only (49 patients), a combination of both (49 participants), and placebo (49 participants), for a 1-year period.
• Patients received liraglutide or volume-matched placebo as daily injections starting at 0.6 mg/d with a weekly increase until 3 mg/d was reached; exercise entailed 30-minute sessions for 4 days a week.
• Researchers studied bone health at each patient’s hip, spine, and forearm after they lost weight, by measuring bone mineral density (BMD).

TAKEAWAY:

• The overall average change in weight loss over the course of 52 weeks was 7.03 kg in the placebo group, 11.19 kg in the exercise group, 13.74 kg in the liraglutide group, and 16.88 kg in the combination group.
• After the initial low-calorie diet-induced weight loss, the placebo group regained weight, the exercise and liraglutide groups maintained weight loss, and the combination group lost additional weight.
• BMD did not change in the combination group in comparison to the placebo group at the hip (mean change, −0.006 g/cm²; 95% CI, −0.017 to 0.004 g/cm²; P = .24) or spine (−0.010 g/cm²; 95% CI, −0.025 to 0.005 g/cm²; P = .20).
• BMD of the spine in the liraglutide group decreased in comparison to the exercise group (mean change, −0.016 g/cm²; 95% CI, −0.032 to −0.001 g/cm²; P = .04) and the placebo group, in addition to decreases in the hip.

IN PRACTICE:

“Our results show that the combination of exercise and GLP-1 RA was the most effective weight loss strategy while preserving bone health,” study authors wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Simon Birk Kjær Jensen, PhD, of the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and published on June 25 in JAMA Network Open.

LIMITATIONS:

The study only included adults aged between 18 and 65 years without other chronic diseases and may not apply to patients who are older or have diabetes. The study sample was diverse but was conducted in Denmark, with a population of generally similar ancestry.

DISCLOSURES:

One study author reported serving on advisory boards for AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bayer, and Amgen, among others. Other authors reported various financial interests, including grants, personal fees, and salaries, from Amgen, Novo Nordisk, and Abbott Lab, among others.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Researchers have identified a form of B12 deficiency caused by autoantibodies that specifically affects the central nervous system.

Discovered while studying a puzzling case of one patient with inexplicable neurological systems, the same autoantibody was detected in a small percentage of healthy individuals and was nearly four times as prevalent in patients with neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

“I didn’t think this single investigation was going to yield a broader phenomenon with other patients,” lead author John V. Pluvinage, MD, PhD, a neurology resident at the University of California San Francisco, said in an interview. “It started as an N-of-one study just based on scientific curiosity.”

“It’s a beautifully done study,” added Betty Diamond, MD, director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York, commenting on the research. It uncovers “yet another example of a disease where antibodies getting into the brain are the problem.”

The research was published in Science Translational Medicine.
 

The Patient

The investigation began in 2014 with a 67-year-old woman presenting with difficulty speaking, ataxia, and tremor. Her blood tests showed no signs of B12 deficiency, and testing for known autoantibodies came back negative.

Solving this mystery required a more exhaustive approach. The patient enrolled in a research study focused on identifying novel autoantibodies in suspected neuroinflammatory disease, using a screening technology called phage immunoprecipitation sequencing.

“We adapted this technology to screen for autoantibodies in an unbiased manner by displaying every peptide across the human proteome and then mixing those peptides with patient antibodies in order to figure out what the antibodies are binding to,” explained Dr. Pluvinage.

Using this method, he and colleagues discovered that this woman had autoantibodies that target CD320 — a receptor important in the cellular uptake of B12. While her blood tests were normal, B12 in the patient’s cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) was “nearly undetectable,” Dr. Pluvinage said. Using an in vitro model of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), the researchers determined that anti-CD320 impaired the transport of B12 across the BBB by targeting receptors on the cell surface.

Treating the patient with a combination of immunosuppressant medication and high-dose B12 supplementation increased B12 levels in the patient’s CSF and improved clinical symptoms.
 

Identifying More Cases

Dr. Pluvinage and colleagues tested the 254 other individuals enrolled in the neuroinflammatory disease study and identified seven participants with CSF anti-CD320 autoantibodies — four of whom had low B12 in the CSF.

In a group of healthy controls, anti-CD320 seropositivity was 6%, similar to the positivity rate in 132 paired serum and CSF samples from a cohort of patients with multiple sclerosis (5.7%). In this group of patients with multiple sclerosis, anti-CD320 presence in the blood was highly predictive of high levels of CSF methylmalonic acid, a metabolic marker of B12 deficiency.

Researchers also screened for anti-CD320 seropositivity in 408 patients with non-neurologic SLE and 28 patients with neuropsychiatric SLE and found that the autoantibody was nearly four times as prevalent in patients with neurologic symptoms (21.4%) compared with in those with non-neurologic SLE (5.6%).

“The clinical relevance of anti-CD320 in healthy controls remains uncertain,” the authors wrote. However, it is not uncommon to have healthy patients with known autoantibodies.

“There are always people who have autoantibodies who don’t get disease, and why that is we don’t know,” said Dr. Diamond. Some individuals may develop clinical symptoms later, or there may be other reasons why they are protected against disease.

Pluvinage is eager to follow some seropositive healthy individuals to track their neurologic health overtime, to see if the presence of anti-CD320 “alters their neurologic trajectories.”
 

Alternative Pathways

Lastly, Dr. Pluvinage and colleagues set out to explain why patients with anti-CD320 in their blood did not show any signs of B12 deficiency. They hypothesized that another receptor may be compensating and still allowing blood cells to take up B12. Using CRISPR screening, the team identified the low-density lipoprotein receptor as an alternative pathway to B12 uptake.

“These findings suggest a model in which anti-CD320 impairs transport of B12 across the BBB, leading to autoimmune B12 central deficiency (ABCD) with varied neurologic manifestations but sparing peripheral manifestations of B12 deficiency,” the authors wrote.

The work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Department of Defense, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center Laboratory for Cell Analysis Shared Resource Facility, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Valhalla Foundation, and the Westridge Foundation. Dr. Pluvinage is a co-inventor on a patent application related to this work. Dr. Diamond had no relevant disclosures.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Researchers have identified a form of B12 deficiency caused by autoantibodies that specifically affects the central nervous system.

Discovered while studying a puzzling case of one patient with inexplicable neurological systems, the same autoantibody was detected in a small percentage of healthy individuals and was nearly four times as prevalent in patients with neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

“I didn’t think this single investigation was going to yield a broader phenomenon with other patients,” lead author John V. Pluvinage, MD, PhD, a neurology resident at the University of California San Francisco, said in an interview. “It started as an N-of-one study just based on scientific curiosity.”

“It’s a beautifully done study,” added Betty Diamond, MD, director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York, commenting on the research. It uncovers “yet another example of a disease where antibodies getting into the brain are the problem.”

The research was published in Science Translational Medicine.
 

The Patient

The investigation began in 2014 with a 67-year-old woman presenting with difficulty speaking, ataxia, and tremor. Her blood tests showed no signs of B12 deficiency, and testing for known autoantibodies came back negative.

Solving this mystery required a more exhaustive approach. The patient enrolled in a research study focused on identifying novel autoantibodies in suspected neuroinflammatory disease, using a screening technology called phage immunoprecipitation sequencing.

“We adapted this technology to screen for autoantibodies in an unbiased manner by displaying every peptide across the human proteome and then mixing those peptides with patient antibodies in order to figure out what the antibodies are binding to,” explained Dr. Pluvinage.

Using this method, he and colleagues discovered that this woman had autoantibodies that target CD320 — a receptor important in the cellular uptake of B12. While her blood tests were normal, B12 in the patient’s cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) was “nearly undetectable,” Dr. Pluvinage said. Using an in vitro model of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), the researchers determined that anti-CD320 impaired the transport of B12 across the BBB by targeting receptors on the cell surface.

Treating the patient with a combination of immunosuppressant medication and high-dose B12 supplementation increased B12 levels in the patient’s CSF and improved clinical symptoms.
 

Identifying More Cases

Dr. Pluvinage and colleagues tested the 254 other individuals enrolled in the neuroinflammatory disease study and identified seven participants with CSF anti-CD320 autoantibodies — four of whom had low B12 in the CSF.

In a group of healthy controls, anti-CD320 seropositivity was 6%, similar to the positivity rate in 132 paired serum and CSF samples from a cohort of patients with multiple sclerosis (5.7%). In this group of patients with multiple sclerosis, anti-CD320 presence in the blood was highly predictive of high levels of CSF methylmalonic acid, a metabolic marker of B12 deficiency.

Researchers also screened for anti-CD320 seropositivity in 408 patients with non-neurologic SLE and 28 patients with neuropsychiatric SLE and found that the autoantibody was nearly four times as prevalent in patients with neurologic symptoms (21.4%) compared with in those with non-neurologic SLE (5.6%).

“The clinical relevance of anti-CD320 in healthy controls remains uncertain,” the authors wrote. However, it is not uncommon to have healthy patients with known autoantibodies.

“There are always people who have autoantibodies who don’t get disease, and why that is we don’t know,” said Dr. Diamond. Some individuals may develop clinical symptoms later, or there may be other reasons why they are protected against disease.

Pluvinage is eager to follow some seropositive healthy individuals to track their neurologic health overtime, to see if the presence of anti-CD320 “alters their neurologic trajectories.”
 

Alternative Pathways

Lastly, Dr. Pluvinage and colleagues set out to explain why patients with anti-CD320 in their blood did not show any signs of B12 deficiency. They hypothesized that another receptor may be compensating and still allowing blood cells to take up B12. Using CRISPR screening, the team identified the low-density lipoprotein receptor as an alternative pathway to B12 uptake.

“These findings suggest a model in which anti-CD320 impairs transport of B12 across the BBB, leading to autoimmune B12 central deficiency (ABCD) with varied neurologic manifestations but sparing peripheral manifestations of B12 deficiency,” the authors wrote.

The work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Department of Defense, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center Laboratory for Cell Analysis Shared Resource Facility, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Valhalla Foundation, and the Westridge Foundation. Dr. Pluvinage is a co-inventor on a patent application related to this work. Dr. Diamond had no relevant disclosures.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Researchers have identified a form of B12 deficiency caused by autoantibodies that specifically affects the central nervous system.

Discovered while studying a puzzling case of one patient with inexplicable neurological systems, the same autoantibody was detected in a small percentage of healthy individuals and was nearly four times as prevalent in patients with neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

“I didn’t think this single investigation was going to yield a broader phenomenon with other patients,” lead author John V. Pluvinage, MD, PhD, a neurology resident at the University of California San Francisco, said in an interview. “It started as an N-of-one study just based on scientific curiosity.”

“It’s a beautifully done study,” added Betty Diamond, MD, director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York, commenting on the research. It uncovers “yet another example of a disease where antibodies getting into the brain are the problem.”

The research was published in Science Translational Medicine.
 

The Patient

The investigation began in 2014 with a 67-year-old woman presenting with difficulty speaking, ataxia, and tremor. Her blood tests showed no signs of B12 deficiency, and testing for known autoantibodies came back negative.

Solving this mystery required a more exhaustive approach. The patient enrolled in a research study focused on identifying novel autoantibodies in suspected neuroinflammatory disease, using a screening technology called phage immunoprecipitation sequencing.

“We adapted this technology to screen for autoantibodies in an unbiased manner by displaying every peptide across the human proteome and then mixing those peptides with patient antibodies in order to figure out what the antibodies are binding to,” explained Dr. Pluvinage.

Using this method, he and colleagues discovered that this woman had autoantibodies that target CD320 — a receptor important in the cellular uptake of B12. While her blood tests were normal, B12 in the patient’s cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) was “nearly undetectable,” Dr. Pluvinage said. Using an in vitro model of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), the researchers determined that anti-CD320 impaired the transport of B12 across the BBB by targeting receptors on the cell surface.

Treating the patient with a combination of immunosuppressant medication and high-dose B12 supplementation increased B12 levels in the patient’s CSF and improved clinical symptoms.
 

Identifying More Cases

Dr. Pluvinage and colleagues tested the 254 other individuals enrolled in the neuroinflammatory disease study and identified seven participants with CSF anti-CD320 autoantibodies — four of whom had low B12 in the CSF.

In a group of healthy controls, anti-CD320 seropositivity was 6%, similar to the positivity rate in 132 paired serum and CSF samples from a cohort of patients with multiple sclerosis (5.7%). In this group of patients with multiple sclerosis, anti-CD320 presence in the blood was highly predictive of high levels of CSF methylmalonic acid, a metabolic marker of B12 deficiency.

Researchers also screened for anti-CD320 seropositivity in 408 patients with non-neurologic SLE and 28 patients with neuropsychiatric SLE and found that the autoantibody was nearly four times as prevalent in patients with neurologic symptoms (21.4%) compared with in those with non-neurologic SLE (5.6%).

“The clinical relevance of anti-CD320 in healthy controls remains uncertain,” the authors wrote. However, it is not uncommon to have healthy patients with known autoantibodies.

“There are always people who have autoantibodies who don’t get disease, and why that is we don’t know,” said Dr. Diamond. Some individuals may develop clinical symptoms later, or there may be other reasons why they are protected against disease.

Pluvinage is eager to follow some seropositive healthy individuals to track their neurologic health overtime, to see if the presence of anti-CD320 “alters their neurologic trajectories.”
 

Alternative Pathways

Lastly, Dr. Pluvinage and colleagues set out to explain why patients with anti-CD320 in their blood did not show any signs of B12 deficiency. They hypothesized that another receptor may be compensating and still allowing blood cells to take up B12. Using CRISPR screening, the team identified the low-density lipoprotein receptor as an alternative pathway to B12 uptake.

“These findings suggest a model in which anti-CD320 impairs transport of B12 across the BBB, leading to autoimmune B12 central deficiency (ABCD) with varied neurologic manifestations but sparing peripheral manifestations of B12 deficiency,” the authors wrote.

The work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Department of Defense, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center Laboratory for Cell Analysis Shared Resource Facility, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Valhalla Foundation, and the Westridge Foundation. Dr. Pluvinage is a co-inventor on a patent application related to this work. Dr. Diamond had no relevant disclosures.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

The tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) inhibitor TAK-279 demonstrated superiority to placebo in patients with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA), according to phase 2 trial results.

METHODOLOGY:

• Eligible patients were over 18 years old, had PsA for over 6 months, met the classification criteria for PsA, and had at least three swollen and tender joints despite prior nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, disease-modifying antirheumatic drug, or biologic treatment.
• A total of 290 patients were randomized 1:1:1:1 to receive placebo, oral TAK-279 5 mg, 15 mg, or 30 mg once daily.
• The primary endpoint was a 20% improvement in the American College of Rheumatology response criteria (ACR20) at 12 weeks.

TAKEAWAY:

• More than half of patients assigned to TAK-279 15 mg (53.3%) and TAK-279 30 mg (54.2%) achieved ACR20 at 12 weeks, compared with 29.2% of those assigned to placebo.
• Psoriasis Area and Severity Index 75 response rates were also higher in patients assigned to TAK-279 30 mg (45.7%) or 15 mg (28.3%) than those in placebo (15.4%).
• Treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) of any kind were numerically higher in the 30-mg group, though serious TEAEs were similar across all treatment arms.
• The most frequent adverse events were nasal pharyngitis, upper respiratory tract infections, headache, and rash, with rash being most common in the TAK-279 30-mg group.

IN PRACTICE:

“There are few targeted oral therapies for active PSA available currently,” said lead author Alan Kivitz, MD, Altoona Center for Clinical Research, Duncansville, Pennsylvania, “and [TAK-279], which was well tolerated and demonstrated superior efficacy versus placebo, may be a promising targeted oral therapy for patients with PsA.”
 

SOURCE:

Dr. Kivitz presented the study findings at the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) 2024 Annual Meeting, held in Vienna.

LIMITATIONS:

The study was a phase 2 trial, and larger studies in active PsA are needed (and currently being planned).
 

DISCLOSURES:

The phase 2 trial was funded by Nimbus and Takeda. Dr. Kivitz has received payment or honoraria for lectures, presentations, speakers bureaus, manuscript writing, or educational events from AbbVie, Amgen, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, and UCB. He has stock or stock options in Pfizer, Amgen, GlaxoSmithKline, Gilead, Novartis, and Pfizer and has received consultant fees from Fresenius Kabi, Genzyme, Gilead, Grunenthal, GlaxoSmithKline, Horizon, Janssen, Pfizer, Selecta, SynAct Pharma, and Takeda. He has been part of a board or advisory board for ChemoCentryx, Horizon, Janssen, Novartis, Princeton Biopartners, and UCB. Other authors also disclosed many relationships with pharmaceutical companies.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

The tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) inhibitor TAK-279 demonstrated superiority to placebo in patients with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA), according to phase 2 trial results.

METHODOLOGY:

• Eligible patients were over 18 years old, had PsA for over 6 months, met the classification criteria for PsA, and had at least three swollen and tender joints despite prior nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, disease-modifying antirheumatic drug, or biologic treatment.
• A total of 290 patients were randomized 1:1:1:1 to receive placebo, oral TAK-279 5 mg, 15 mg, or 30 mg once daily.
• The primary endpoint was a 20% improvement in the American College of Rheumatology response criteria (ACR20) at 12 weeks.

TAKEAWAY:

• More than half of patients assigned to TAK-279 15 mg (53.3%) and TAK-279 30 mg (54.2%) achieved ACR20 at 12 weeks, compared with 29.2% of those assigned to placebo.
• Psoriasis Area and Severity Index 75 response rates were also higher in patients assigned to TAK-279 30 mg (45.7%) or 15 mg (28.3%) than those in placebo (15.4%).
• Treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) of any kind were numerically higher in the 30-mg group, though serious TEAEs were similar across all treatment arms.
• The most frequent adverse events were nasal pharyngitis, upper respiratory tract infections, headache, and rash, with rash being most common in the TAK-279 30-mg group.

IN PRACTICE:

“There are few targeted oral therapies for active PSA available currently,” said lead author Alan Kivitz, MD, Altoona Center for Clinical Research, Duncansville, Pennsylvania, “and [TAK-279], which was well tolerated and demonstrated superior efficacy versus placebo, may be a promising targeted oral therapy for patients with PsA.”
 

SOURCE:

Dr. Kivitz presented the study findings at the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) 2024 Annual Meeting, held in Vienna.

LIMITATIONS:

The study was a phase 2 trial, and larger studies in active PsA are needed (and currently being planned).
 

DISCLOSURES:

The phase 2 trial was funded by Nimbus and Takeda. Dr. Kivitz has received payment or honoraria for lectures, presentations, speakers bureaus, manuscript writing, or educational events from AbbVie, Amgen, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, and UCB. He has stock or stock options in Pfizer, Amgen, GlaxoSmithKline, Gilead, Novartis, and Pfizer and has received consultant fees from Fresenius Kabi, Genzyme, Gilead, Grunenthal, GlaxoSmithKline, Horizon, Janssen, Pfizer, Selecta, SynAct Pharma, and Takeda. He has been part of a board or advisory board for ChemoCentryx, Horizon, Janssen, Novartis, Princeton Biopartners, and UCB. Other authors also disclosed many relationships with pharmaceutical companies.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

The tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) inhibitor TAK-279 demonstrated superiority to placebo in patients with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA), according to phase 2 trial results.

METHODOLOGY:

• Eligible patients were over 18 years old, had PsA for over 6 months, met the classification criteria for PsA, and had at least three swollen and tender joints despite prior nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, disease-modifying antirheumatic drug, or biologic treatment.
• A total of 290 patients were randomized 1:1:1:1 to receive placebo, oral TAK-279 5 mg, 15 mg, or 30 mg once daily.
• The primary endpoint was a 20% improvement in the American College of Rheumatology response criteria (ACR20) at 12 weeks.

TAKEAWAY:

• More than half of patients assigned to TAK-279 15 mg (53.3%) and TAK-279 30 mg (54.2%) achieved ACR20 at 12 weeks, compared with 29.2% of those assigned to placebo.
• Psoriasis Area and Severity Index 75 response rates were also higher in patients assigned to TAK-279 30 mg (45.7%) or 15 mg (28.3%) than those in placebo (15.4%).
• Treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) of any kind were numerically higher in the 30-mg group, though serious TEAEs were similar across all treatment arms.
• The most frequent adverse events were nasal pharyngitis, upper respiratory tract infections, headache, and rash, with rash being most common in the TAK-279 30-mg group.

IN PRACTICE:

“There are few targeted oral therapies for active PSA available currently,” said lead author Alan Kivitz, MD, Altoona Center for Clinical Research, Duncansville, Pennsylvania, “and [TAK-279], which was well tolerated and demonstrated superior efficacy versus placebo, may be a promising targeted oral therapy for patients with PsA.”
 

SOURCE:

Dr. Kivitz presented the study findings at the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) 2024 Annual Meeting, held in Vienna.

LIMITATIONS:

The study was a phase 2 trial, and larger studies in active PsA are needed (and currently being planned).
 

DISCLOSURES:

The phase 2 trial was funded by Nimbus and Takeda. Dr. Kivitz has received payment or honoraria for lectures, presentations, speakers bureaus, manuscript writing, or educational events from AbbVie, Amgen, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, and UCB. He has stock or stock options in Pfizer, Amgen, GlaxoSmithKline, Gilead, Novartis, and Pfizer and has received consultant fees from Fresenius Kabi, Genzyme, Gilead, Grunenthal, GlaxoSmithKline, Horizon, Janssen, Pfizer, Selecta, SynAct Pharma, and Takeda. He has been part of a board or advisory board for ChemoCentryx, Horizon, Janssen, Novartis, Princeton Biopartners, and UCB. Other authors also disclosed many relationships with pharmaceutical companies.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Treatment of patients with active psoriatic arthritis with sonelokimab — an interleukin (IL)-17A- and IL-17F-inhibiting nanobody — led to a higher percentage of patients with 50% or greater improvement in American College of Rheumatology response criteria (ACR50) compared with the placebo in a phase 2 trial.

METHODOLOGY:

• Sonelokimab is a 40-kDa nanobody that binds to IL-17A, IL-17F, and albumin.
• Eligible patients were at least 18 years old with active PsA (at least three swollen and three tender joints) and had a psoriasis diagnosis.
• A total of 207 patients were randomized 1:1:1:1 to every 4 weeks receive placebo, sonelokimab 60 mg with no induction (NI) period, sonelokimab 60 mg with induction, and sonelokimab 120 mg with induction.
• Induction was once every 2 weeks up to week 8 of the trial.
• The primary endpoint was meeting ACR20 response criteria at 12 weeks.

TAKEAWAY:

• About 46% of patients in the sonelokimab 120-mg and 60-mg groups achieved ACR50, compared with 36.6% in the sonelokimab 60-mg NI group and 20% of those assigned to placebo.
• ACR20 and 90% or greater reduction in Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score response rates were higher in all three sonelokimab groups than in the placebo group.
• There were no unexpected safety findings during the trial, and no cases of inflammatory bowel disease or major cardiovascular events.
• There were two cases of oral candidiasis, which did not lead to study discontinuation.

IN PRACTICE:

These data “support further exploration in phase 3 trials of sonelokimab to evaluate its potential for the treatment of PsA,” the authors noted in the presentation.

SOURCE:

Iain B. McInnes, MD, PhD, of the University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, presented these phase 2 trial results at the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) 2024 Annual Congress, held in Vienna.

LIMITATIONS:

The results are from a phase 2 trial, and more research is needed.

DISCLOSURES:

MoonLake Immunotherapeutics funded the research. Dr. McInnes disclosed relationships with AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Causeway Therapeutics, Cabaletta Bio, Compugen, Evelo, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Novartis, MoonLake Immunotherapeutics, Pfizer, Sanofi Regeneron, and UCB. Other authors also disclosed many relationships with pharmaceutical companies.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Treatment of patients with active psoriatic arthritis with sonelokimab — an interleukin (IL)-17A- and IL-17F-inhibiting nanobody — led to a higher percentage of patients with 50% or greater improvement in American College of Rheumatology response criteria (ACR50) compared with the placebo in a phase 2 trial.

METHODOLOGY:

• Sonelokimab is a 40-kDa nanobody that binds to IL-17A, IL-17F, and albumin.
• Eligible patients were at least 18 years old with active PsA (at least three swollen and three tender joints) and had a psoriasis diagnosis.
• A total of 207 patients were randomized 1:1:1:1 to every 4 weeks receive placebo, sonelokimab 60 mg with no induction (NI) period, sonelokimab 60 mg with induction, and sonelokimab 120 mg with induction.
• Induction was once every 2 weeks up to week 8 of the trial.
• The primary endpoint was meeting ACR20 response criteria at 12 weeks.

TAKEAWAY:

• About 46% of patients in the sonelokimab 120-mg and 60-mg groups achieved ACR50, compared with 36.6% in the sonelokimab 60-mg NI group and 20% of those assigned to placebo.
• ACR20 and 90% or greater reduction in Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score response rates were higher in all three sonelokimab groups than in the placebo group.
• There were no unexpected safety findings during the trial, and no cases of inflammatory bowel disease or major cardiovascular events.
• There were two cases of oral candidiasis, which did not lead to study discontinuation.

IN PRACTICE:

These data “support further exploration in phase 3 trials of sonelokimab to evaluate its potential for the treatment of PsA,” the authors noted in the presentation.

SOURCE:

Iain B. McInnes, MD, PhD, of the University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, presented these phase 2 trial results at the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) 2024 Annual Congress, held in Vienna.

LIMITATIONS:

The results are from a phase 2 trial, and more research is needed.

DISCLOSURES:

MoonLake Immunotherapeutics funded the research. Dr. McInnes disclosed relationships with AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Causeway Therapeutics, Cabaletta Bio, Compugen, Evelo, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Novartis, MoonLake Immunotherapeutics, Pfizer, Sanofi Regeneron, and UCB. Other authors also disclosed many relationships with pharmaceutical companies.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Treatment of patients with active psoriatic arthritis with sonelokimab — an interleukin (IL)-17A- and IL-17F-inhibiting nanobody — led to a higher percentage of patients with 50% or greater improvement in American College of Rheumatology response criteria (ACR50) compared with the placebo in a phase 2 trial.

METHODOLOGY:

• Sonelokimab is a 40-kDa nanobody that binds to IL-17A, IL-17F, and albumin.
• Eligible patients were at least 18 years old with active PsA (at least three swollen and three tender joints) and had a psoriasis diagnosis.
• A total of 207 patients were randomized 1:1:1:1 to every 4 weeks receive placebo, sonelokimab 60 mg with no induction (NI) period, sonelokimab 60 mg with induction, and sonelokimab 120 mg with induction.
• Induction was once every 2 weeks up to week 8 of the trial.
• The primary endpoint was meeting ACR20 response criteria at 12 weeks.

TAKEAWAY:

• About 46% of patients in the sonelokimab 120-mg and 60-mg groups achieved ACR50, compared with 36.6% in the sonelokimab 60-mg NI group and 20% of those assigned to placebo.
• ACR20 and 90% or greater reduction in Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score response rates were higher in all three sonelokimab groups than in the placebo group.
• There were no unexpected safety findings during the trial, and no cases of inflammatory bowel disease or major cardiovascular events.
• There were two cases of oral candidiasis, which did not lead to study discontinuation.

IN PRACTICE:

These data “support further exploration in phase 3 trials of sonelokimab to evaluate its potential for the treatment of PsA,” the authors noted in the presentation.

SOURCE:

Iain B. McInnes, MD, PhD, of the University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, presented these phase 2 trial results at the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) 2024 Annual Congress, held in Vienna.

LIMITATIONS:

The results are from a phase 2 trial, and more research is needed.

DISCLOSURES:

MoonLake Immunotherapeutics funded the research. Dr. McInnes disclosed relationships with AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Causeway Therapeutics, Cabaletta Bio, Compugen, Evelo, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Novartis, MoonLake Immunotherapeutics, Pfizer, Sanofi Regeneron, and UCB. Other authors also disclosed many relationships with pharmaceutical companies.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued new draft guidance that does not require additional switching studies for biosimilars seeking interchangeability. These studies were previously recommended to demonstrate that switching between the biosimilar and its reference product showed no greater risk than using the reference product alone.

“The recommendations in today’s draft guidance, when finalized, will provide clarity and transparency about the FDA’s thinking and align the review and approval process with existing and emerging science,” said Sarah Yim, MD, director of the FDA’s Office of Therapeutic Biologics and Biosimilars in a statement on June 20. “We have gained valuable experience reviewing both biosimilar and interchangeable biosimilar medications over the past 10 years. Both biosimilars and interchangeable biosimilars meet the same high standard of biosimilarity for FDA approval and both are as safe and effective as the reference product.”

An interchangeable status allows a biosimilar product to be swapped with the reference product without involvement from the prescribing provider, depending on state law.

While switching studies were not required under previous FDA guidance, the 2019 document did state that the agency “expects that applications generally will include data from a switching study or studies in one or more appropriate conditions of use.”

However, of the 13 biosimilars that received interchangeability status, 9 did not include switching study data.

“Experience has shown that, for the products approved as biosimilars to date, the risk in terms of safety or diminished efficacy is insignificant following single or multiple switches between a reference product and a biosimilar product,” the FDA stated. The agency’s investigators also conducted a systematic review of switching studies, which found no differences in risk for death, serious adverse events, and treatment discontinuations in participants switched between biosimilars and reference products and those that remained on reference products.

“Additionally, today’s analytical tools can accurately evaluate the structure and effects [of] biologic products, both in the lab (in vitro) and in living organisms (in vivo) with more precision and sensitivity than switching studies,” the agency noted.

The FDA is now calling for commentary on these draft recommendations to be submitted by Aug. 20, 2024.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued new draft guidance that does not require additional switching studies for biosimilars seeking interchangeability. These studies were previously recommended to demonstrate that switching between the biosimilar and its reference product showed no greater risk than using the reference product alone.

“The recommendations in today’s draft guidance, when finalized, will provide clarity and transparency about the FDA’s thinking and align the review and approval process with existing and emerging science,” said Sarah Yim, MD, director of the FDA’s Office of Therapeutic Biologics and Biosimilars in a statement on June 20. “We have gained valuable experience reviewing both biosimilar and interchangeable biosimilar medications over the past 10 years. Both biosimilars and interchangeable biosimilars meet the same high standard of biosimilarity for FDA approval and both are as safe and effective as the reference product.”

An interchangeable status allows a biosimilar product to be swapped with the reference product without involvement from the prescribing provider, depending on state law.

While switching studies were not required under previous FDA guidance, the 2019 document did state that the agency “expects that applications generally will include data from a switching study or studies in one or more appropriate conditions of use.”

However, of the 13 biosimilars that received interchangeability status, 9 did not include switching study data.

“Experience has shown that, for the products approved as biosimilars to date, the risk in terms of safety or diminished efficacy is insignificant following single or multiple switches between a reference product and a biosimilar product,” the FDA stated. The agency’s investigators also conducted a systematic review of switching studies, which found no differences in risk for death, serious adverse events, and treatment discontinuations in participants switched between biosimilars and reference products and those that remained on reference products.

“Additionally, today’s analytical tools can accurately evaluate the structure and effects [of] biologic products, both in the lab (in vitro) and in living organisms (in vivo) with more precision and sensitivity than switching studies,” the agency noted.

The FDA is now calling for commentary on these draft recommendations to be submitted by Aug. 20, 2024.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued new draft guidance that does not require additional switching studies for biosimilars seeking interchangeability. These studies were previously recommended to demonstrate that switching between the biosimilar and its reference product showed no greater risk than using the reference product alone.

“The recommendations in today’s draft guidance, when finalized, will provide clarity and transparency about the FDA’s thinking and align the review and approval process with existing and emerging science,” said Sarah Yim, MD, director of the FDA’s Office of Therapeutic Biologics and Biosimilars in a statement on June 20. “We have gained valuable experience reviewing both biosimilar and interchangeable biosimilar medications over the past 10 years. Both biosimilars and interchangeable biosimilars meet the same high standard of biosimilarity for FDA approval and both are as safe and effective as the reference product.”

An interchangeable status allows a biosimilar product to be swapped with the reference product without involvement from the prescribing provider, depending on state law.

While switching studies were not required under previous FDA guidance, the 2019 document did state that the agency “expects that applications generally will include data from a switching study or studies in one or more appropriate conditions of use.”

However, of the 13 biosimilars that received interchangeability status, 9 did not include switching study data.

“Experience has shown that, for the products approved as biosimilars to date, the risk in terms of safety or diminished efficacy is insignificant following single or multiple switches between a reference product and a biosimilar product,” the FDA stated. The agency’s investigators also conducted a systematic review of switching studies, which found no differences in risk for death, serious adverse events, and treatment discontinuations in participants switched between biosimilars and reference products and those that remained on reference products.

“Additionally, today’s analytical tools can accurately evaluate the structure and effects [of] biologic products, both in the lab (in vitro) and in living organisms (in vivo) with more precision and sensitivity than switching studies,” the agency noted.

The FDA is now calling for commentary on these draft recommendations to be submitted by Aug. 20, 2024.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Baricitinib may be the superior choice to tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for whom conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) have failed, according to a new study.

After 12 weeks, patients taking baricitinib achieved a 50% improvement in RA symptoms according to American College of Rheumatology response criteria (ACR50) at twice the rate as in patients assigned to receive TNF inhibitors. In addition, 75% of the baricitinib group achieved a 28-joint Disease Activity Score with C-reactive protein under 2.6, compared with less than half of patients taking TNF inhibitors.
 

Putting Safety Into the Equation

However, safety concerns also need to be considered when prescribing medication, noted Andrew Wang, MD, PhD, a rheumatologist at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. He was not involved with the study, called PERFECTRA.

“This category of drugs — JAK-STAT [inhibitors] — are much newer than TNF inhibitors, CTLAs, B-cell depleters, and the other tools we have,” he said, “with relatively less real-world experience and potential downsides in the future.”

Study Details

In the study, researchers enrolled 199 patients with active RA for which previous use of at least one csDMARD had failed and randomly assigned 97 patients to receive baricitinib and the remainder to receive a TNF inhibitor: 64% started on adalimumab, 33% started on etanercept, and the rest used golimumab or infliximab.

For all patients, the suggested treatment allocation was provided via randomization lists, but physicians and patients ultimately decided treatment via shared decision-making.

Patients were diagnosed less than 5 years ago, had received no previous treatment with biologics or targeted synthetic DMARDs, and had no contraindications for TNF inhibitors or baricitinib. Researchers recruited patients from September 2019 through February 2022 across 15 health centers in the Netherlands and Belgium. The study was funded by Eli Lilly, which manufactures baricitinib, although the study was investigator initiated.

Patients were on average aged 55 years, and about two thirds were women. The average disease duration was 2 years.

At 12 weeks, 42% of the baricitinib group achieved ACR50, compared with 20% of the TNF inhibitor group. All patient-reported outcome measures showed improvement over the study period, favoring baricitinib. More patients receiving baricitinib remained on the medication overall than patients on a TNF inhibitor: At 48 weeks, 70% of patients receiving a TNF inhibitor and 80% of patients receiving baricitinib had continued taking their assigned treatment.

These results are not surprising, Wang noted, as “JAK inhibitors hit many arms of immune signaling, whereas TNF blockers just hit TNF.” However, there is a trade-off between potent, effective drugs and toxicity, he added.

“I would not be as bullish on starting baricitinib in a patient off the bat, in the same way that nobody would want to keep patients on glucocorticoids [any longer than is] minimally necessary.”

While the study was not powered to compare safety between the two drugs, there were no adverse events during the study that had not been previously reported.

“Prescribers have to be aware that cardiovascular and malignant [serious adverse events] are more frequently reported” with JAK inhibitors than with TNF inhibitors, the authors wrote. “Obviously, this has to be considered carefully in risk-benefit discussions with any individual patient.”

Dr. Wang noted that, in general, he and his colleagues would not start with a JAK inhibitor first except for special circumstances: For example, if a patient will not use an injectable medication, or for some reason, it’s impractical for the patient’s lifestyle to use medication that requires constant refrigeration.

“I think the take-home message here is these are, in general, lifelong diseases, and so a rheumatologist and their patients have to develop good relationships to monitor whether or not we’re hitting the sweet spot of keeping disease under control” while also avoiding overmedication and toxicity, he said.

One potential solution, which Dr. Wang has also done in his clinical practice, is to initiate a JAK inhibitor in patients who need it but then switch to a different modality after achieving disease control.

“You can imagine a scenario where you get them to a very low [Disease Activity Score] with baricitinib, for example, and then you switch them to a TNF inhibitor,” he said. “I can imagine that there would be ways that you could get the best of both worlds.”

PERFECTRA was financially supported by an unrestricted grant from Eli Lilly. The authors reported financial relationships with AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Galapagos, and Janssen-Cilag. Dr. Wang serves on NGM Bio’s science advisory board, consults for TCG Labs-Soleil and Seranova Bio, and has received funding from AstraZeneca.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Baricitinib may be the superior choice to tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for whom conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) have failed, according to a new study.

After 12 weeks, patients taking baricitinib achieved a 50% improvement in RA symptoms according to American College of Rheumatology response criteria (ACR50) at twice the rate as in patients assigned to receive TNF inhibitors. In addition, 75% of the baricitinib group achieved a 28-joint Disease Activity Score with C-reactive protein under 2.6, compared with less than half of patients taking TNF inhibitors.
 

Putting Safety Into the Equation

However, safety concerns also need to be considered when prescribing medication, noted Andrew Wang, MD, PhD, a rheumatologist at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. He was not involved with the study, called PERFECTRA.

“This category of drugs — JAK-STAT [inhibitors] — are much newer than TNF inhibitors, CTLAs, B-cell depleters, and the other tools we have,” he said, “with relatively less real-world experience and potential downsides in the future.”

Study Details

In the study, researchers enrolled 199 patients with active RA for which previous use of at least one csDMARD had failed and randomly assigned 97 patients to receive baricitinib and the remainder to receive a TNF inhibitor: 64% started on adalimumab, 33% started on etanercept, and the rest used golimumab or infliximab.

For all patients, the suggested treatment allocation was provided via randomization lists, but physicians and patients ultimately decided treatment via shared decision-making.

Patients were diagnosed less than 5 years ago, had received no previous treatment with biologics or targeted synthetic DMARDs, and had no contraindications for TNF inhibitors or baricitinib. Researchers recruited patients from September 2019 through February 2022 across 15 health centers in the Netherlands and Belgium. The study was funded by Eli Lilly, which manufactures baricitinib, although the study was investigator initiated.

Patients were on average aged 55 years, and about two thirds were women. The average disease duration was 2 years.

At 12 weeks, 42% of the baricitinib group achieved ACR50, compared with 20% of the TNF inhibitor group. All patient-reported outcome measures showed improvement over the study period, favoring baricitinib. More patients receiving baricitinib remained on the medication overall than patients on a TNF inhibitor: At 48 weeks, 70% of patients receiving a TNF inhibitor and 80% of patients receiving baricitinib had continued taking their assigned treatment.

These results are not surprising, Wang noted, as “JAK inhibitors hit many arms of immune signaling, whereas TNF blockers just hit TNF.” However, there is a trade-off between potent, effective drugs and toxicity, he added.

“I would not be as bullish on starting baricitinib in a patient off the bat, in the same way that nobody would want to keep patients on glucocorticoids [any longer than is] minimally necessary.”

While the study was not powered to compare safety between the two drugs, there were no adverse events during the study that had not been previously reported.

“Prescribers have to be aware that cardiovascular and malignant [serious adverse events] are more frequently reported” with JAK inhibitors than with TNF inhibitors, the authors wrote. “Obviously, this has to be considered carefully in risk-benefit discussions with any individual patient.”

Dr. Wang noted that, in general, he and his colleagues would not start with a JAK inhibitor first except for special circumstances: For example, if a patient will not use an injectable medication, or for some reason, it’s impractical for the patient’s lifestyle to use medication that requires constant refrigeration.

“I think the take-home message here is these are, in general, lifelong diseases, and so a rheumatologist and their patients have to develop good relationships to monitor whether or not we’re hitting the sweet spot of keeping disease under control” while also avoiding overmedication and toxicity, he said.

One potential solution, which Dr. Wang has also done in his clinical practice, is to initiate a JAK inhibitor in patients who need it but then switch to a different modality after achieving disease control.

“You can imagine a scenario where you get them to a very low [Disease Activity Score] with baricitinib, for example, and then you switch them to a TNF inhibitor,” he said. “I can imagine that there would be ways that you could get the best of both worlds.”

PERFECTRA was financially supported by an unrestricted grant from Eli Lilly. The authors reported financial relationships with AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Galapagos, and Janssen-Cilag. Dr. Wang serves on NGM Bio’s science advisory board, consults for TCG Labs-Soleil and Seranova Bio, and has received funding from AstraZeneca.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Baricitinib may be the superior choice to tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for whom conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) have failed, according to a new study.

After 12 weeks, patients taking baricitinib achieved a 50% improvement in RA symptoms according to American College of Rheumatology response criteria (ACR50) at twice the rate as in patients assigned to receive TNF inhibitors. In addition, 75% of the baricitinib group achieved a 28-joint Disease Activity Score with C-reactive protein under 2.6, compared with less than half of patients taking TNF inhibitors.
 

Putting Safety Into the Equation

However, safety concerns also need to be considered when prescribing medication, noted Andrew Wang, MD, PhD, a rheumatologist at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. He was not involved with the study, called PERFECTRA.

“This category of drugs — JAK-STAT [inhibitors] — are much newer than TNF inhibitors, CTLAs, B-cell depleters, and the other tools we have,” he said, “with relatively less real-world experience and potential downsides in the future.”

Study Details

In the study, researchers enrolled 199 patients with active RA for which previous use of at least one csDMARD had failed and randomly assigned 97 patients to receive baricitinib and the remainder to receive a TNF inhibitor: 64% started on adalimumab, 33% started on etanercept, and the rest used golimumab or infliximab.

For all patients, the suggested treatment allocation was provided via randomization lists, but physicians and patients ultimately decided treatment via shared decision-making.

Patients were diagnosed less than 5 years ago, had received no previous treatment with biologics or targeted synthetic DMARDs, and had no contraindications for TNF inhibitors or baricitinib. Researchers recruited patients from September 2019 through February 2022 across 15 health centers in the Netherlands and Belgium. The study was funded by Eli Lilly, which manufactures baricitinib, although the study was investigator initiated.

Patients were on average aged 55 years, and about two thirds were women. The average disease duration was 2 years.

At 12 weeks, 42% of the baricitinib group achieved ACR50, compared with 20% of the TNF inhibitor group. All patient-reported outcome measures showed improvement over the study period, favoring baricitinib. More patients receiving baricitinib remained on the medication overall than patients on a TNF inhibitor: At 48 weeks, 70% of patients receiving a TNF inhibitor and 80% of patients receiving baricitinib had continued taking their assigned treatment.

These results are not surprising, Wang noted, as “JAK inhibitors hit many arms of immune signaling, whereas TNF blockers just hit TNF.” However, there is a trade-off between potent, effective drugs and toxicity, he added.

“I would not be as bullish on starting baricitinib in a patient off the bat, in the same way that nobody would want to keep patients on glucocorticoids [any longer than is] minimally necessary.”

While the study was not powered to compare safety between the two drugs, there were no adverse events during the study that had not been previously reported.

“Prescribers have to be aware that cardiovascular and malignant [serious adverse events] are more frequently reported” with JAK inhibitors than with TNF inhibitors, the authors wrote. “Obviously, this has to be considered carefully in risk-benefit discussions with any individual patient.”

Dr. Wang noted that, in general, he and his colleagues would not start with a JAK inhibitor first except for special circumstances: For example, if a patient will not use an injectable medication, or for some reason, it’s impractical for the patient’s lifestyle to use medication that requires constant refrigeration.

“I think the take-home message here is these are, in general, lifelong diseases, and so a rheumatologist and their patients have to develop good relationships to monitor whether or not we’re hitting the sweet spot of keeping disease under control” while also avoiding overmedication and toxicity, he said.

One potential solution, which Dr. Wang has also done in his clinical practice, is to initiate a JAK inhibitor in patients who need it but then switch to a different modality after achieving disease control.

“You can imagine a scenario where you get them to a very low [Disease Activity Score] with baricitinib, for example, and then you switch them to a TNF inhibitor,” he said. “I can imagine that there would be ways that you could get the best of both worlds.”

PERFECTRA was financially supported by an unrestricted grant from Eli Lilly. The authors reported financial relationships with AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Galapagos, and Janssen-Cilag. Dr. Wang serves on NGM Bio’s science advisory board, consults for TCG Labs-Soleil and Seranova Bio, and has received funding from AstraZeneca.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

VIENNA — People with spondyloarthritis (SpA) who have low or stable disease activity can effectively and safely be managed using a model of patient-initiated care with or without remote monitoring, suggested the results of two separate trials presented at the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) 2024 Annual Meeting. 

In the 18-month, single-center ReMonit study that included 243 people with axial SpA (axSpA), patient-initiated care was found to be noninferior for keeping them in a low-disease activity state, compared with both usual hospital follow-up and remote digital monitoring.

Meanwhile, in the 12-month, multicenter TeleSpA study, which included 200 patients with any type of SpA, the number of hospital visits needed by people who were randomly assigned to receive patient-initiated care together with asynchronous telemonitoring was significantly lower than for the usual-care group, with no detriment to the participants’ overall health outcomes or safety. Moreover, the strategy was deemed cost-effective from a healthcare provision perspective.
 

Time to Rationalize Healthcare Resources?

People with chronic rheumatic diseases such as axSpA require long-term follow-up in specialist healthcare centers, Inger Jorid Berg, MD, PhD, of Diakonhjemmet Hospital in Oslo, Norway, said when she presented the findings of the ReMonit study as a late-breaking abstract.

Sara Freeman/Medscape Medical News

“Traditionally, this has been offered as prescheduled face-to-face consultations at an outpatient clinic, but remote monitoring and patient-initiated care may allow for more targeted and efficient uses of healthcare resources,” Dr. Berg said.

“The end goal of what you’re trying to do is increase the efficiency of outpatient care and provide more patient-tailored care,” Kasper Hermans, MD, said in an interview. He presented the results of the TeleSpA study. 

Dr. Hermans, who is a rheumatology fellow and PhD candidate at Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands, observed during his presentation at EULAR 2024 that there is an increasing demand for rheumatology services but an expected shortfall in the future workforce. Thus, “sustainable alternative strategies are needed for optimizing the efficiency of care,” he said.

People need to have timely access to care, Dr. Hermans stressed, but perhaps alternatives to the traditional models of care where patients are seen routinely every 6 or 12 months are needed, particularly as prior work had suggested that around one-third of people who were seen by a rheumatologist perhaps did not need to be.

A strategy of patient-initiated care — which is where people are seen by a healthcare provider only if they feel that they need to and request a consultation — is therefore an attractive proposition, particularly if it is backed up with remote monitoring, which is what the TeleSpA study was testing.
 

Two Distinct Studies

ReMonit and TeleSpA were two distinct studies. While both were noninferiority trials and involved patient-initiated care and telemonitoring of outpatients with SpA, that is where the similarities generally end.

Notably, ReMonit included a very specific population of patients — all had a diagnosis of axSpA and were being treated with a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor and had been on a stable dose for the last 6 months. For inclusion, they also had to have inactive disease or low disease activity, as indicated by an Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score (ASDAS) < 2.1.

ReMonit’s telemonitoring strategy involved participants completing monthly questionnaires using the Dignio smartphone app. Patients first completed the Patient Global Assessment (PGA) and noted whether they had experienced a flare in their disease. If they had a flare or their PGA score was 3 or higher, then they were asked to also complete the Bath Ankylosing Spondyloarthritis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI). If the BASDAI score was 4 or more, then the patient was called by a study nurse and offered a consultation.

“Patients in all three groups were recommended to take blood samples at the general practitioner’s or at the hospital every third month as a safety procedure when using TNF inhibitors,” Dr. Berg said.

The primary outcome was the proportion of people who remained with low disease activity (ASDAS < 2.1) at 6, 12, and 18 months in each of the three arms of the trial, which were patient-initiated care (n = 81), monthly remote monitoring (n = 80), or usual follow-up in the hospital every 6 months (n = 82).

TeleSpA on the other hand was a “much more pragmatic trial, much closer to actual care,” Dr. Hermans said. “We included axial spondyloarthritis, peripheral spondyloarthritis, or patients who had both axial and peripheral disease, including patients with psoriatic arthritis,” he said, adding that their inclusion was regardless of their baseline ASDAS based on C-reactive protein (ASDAS-CRP).

This means that patients who would otherwise have been classified at baseline as having high disease activity (by ASDAS-CRP or similar disease activity measures) could be included. The main proviso was that both the patient and their rheumatologist had to define the condition as being stable with an acceptable level of symptom control and no immediate plans to change treatment within the next 3 months.

TeleSpA’s remote monitoring strategy involved the use of SpA-Net, which Dr. Hermans and coinvestigators have described previously as “an ongoing, disease-specific, prospective, web-based registry for monitoring SpA in daily practice.” This captures a host of clinical and laboratory test information.

SpA-Net was used in both arms of the study. However, while the 100 participants in the standard-care arm completed questionnaires and had tests before every in-person visit that had been prescheduled with their rheumatologist, the 100 individuals in the patient-initiated care arm had no prescheduled in-person visits except for being seen at the start and end of the study. These patients were reminded via email to complete the necessary SpA-Net registry questionnaires at 6 months.

The primary outcome for TeleSpA was the total number of rheumatology visits, including both physical and telephone or video consultations, within a 1-year period. 
 

ReMonit Results

Berg reported that similar percentages of patients remained in a low disease activity state at 6, 12, and 18 months, regardless of the group that they had been randomized into, and that there was little change seen within the individual groups.

For instance, at 6, 12, and 18 months, 92%, 91%, and 92% of individuals in the patient-initiated arm had an ASDAS of < 2.1. Corresponding percentages for the usual-care arm were 96%, 93%, and 90% and for the remote-monitoring arm were 96%, 96%, and 94%.

Both patient-initiated care and remote monitoring were noninferior to usual care, and patient-initiated care was also noninferior to remote monitoring. There were no differences between the trial arms in terms of disease activity, measured using either ASDAS or BASDAI, at 6, 12, or 18 months.

Dr. Berg stated that “patient satisfaction was high in all three follow-up strategies, and there was the lowest resource use with patient-initiated care.” She concluded that “remote monitoring and patient-initiated care could be implemented in the follow-up of patients with axial spondyloarthritis and low disease activity.”
 

TeleSpA Results

In TeleSpA, people in the patient-initiated care and telemonitoring arm were seen a mean of 1.9 times over the course of the 1-year follow-up vs 2.6 for people in the usual care arm. The reduction was caused in part by the decrease in physical visits (1.4 vs 2.0) as there were the same mean number of telephone visits in each group. Overall, there was a 25.4% reduction in consultations comparing the patient-initiated care and telemonitoring arm with the usual-care arm.

Importantly, the intervention was noninferior regarding all of the predefined health outcomes: ASDAS, BASDAI, pain assessed using a visual analog scale, patient global assessment, and physician global assessment.

And more than 90% of participants in both groups reported having an overall good experience with their care.

Dr. Hermans noted after his presentation that an additional study had been performed where “we actively engaged with patients in the intervention group as well as healthcare providers to ask them what their experiences were with the intervention, how we could possibly improve it, and whether or not they thought that it was a valid approach to follow-up after the end of the study. And results were very, very reassuring.”

In terms of safety, eight serious adverse events were reported, but none were related to the study intervention, Dr. Hermans said. 

Dr. Hermans reported that there was “negligible difference” in the 1-year quality-adjusted life-years (+0.004, in favor of the intervention overall) and that, while healthcare costs were lower at €243/year for the entire intervention period, societal costs were higher, at €513/year vs usual care. The latter was thought to be “due to an unexpected rise in absenteeism that we think was most likely due to a small amount of outliers,” Dr. Hermans said. 

Nonetheless, using at willingness-to-pay threshold of €20,000/ quality-adjusted life year, he reported that the added value of patient-initiated care with remote monitoring yielded a potential net monetary benefit of +€322 from a healthcare perspective for the entire intervention period.

“We believe that these results support the fast-paced adoption of remote care interventions,” Dr. Hermans said. “In the context that I described earlier, of decreasing healthcare personnel and rising costs, we believe that this could be a valuable approach for follow-up for patients with stable axSpA.”

ReMonit was sponsored by Diakonhjemmet Hospital, and TeleSpA was sponsored by Maastricht University Medical Center, with funding from the Dutch Arthritis Society. Dr. Berg and Dr. Hermans had no relevant conflicts of interest to report.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Editor’s Note: This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.

VIENNA — People with spondyloarthritis (SpA) who have low or stable disease activity can effectively and safely be managed using a model of patient-initiated care with or without remote monitoring, suggested the results of two separate trials presented at the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) 2024 Annual Meeting. 

In the 18-month, single-center ReMonit study that included 243 people with axial SpA (axSpA), patient-initiated care was found to be noninferior for keeping them in a low-disease activity state, compared with both usual hospital follow-up and remote digital monitoring.

Meanwhile, in the 12-month, multicenter TeleSpA study, which included 200 patients with any type of SpA, the number of hospital visits needed by people who were randomly assigned to receive patient-initiated care together with asynchronous telemonitoring was significantly lower than for the usual-care group, with no detriment to the participants’ overall health outcomes or safety. Moreover, the strategy was deemed cost-effective from a healthcare provision perspective.
 

Time to Rationalize Healthcare Resources?

People with chronic rheumatic diseases such as axSpA require long-term follow-up in specialist healthcare centers, Inger Jorid Berg, MD, PhD, of Diakonhjemmet Hospital in Oslo, Norway, said when she presented the findings of the ReMonit study as a late-breaking abstract.

Sara Freeman/Medscape Medical News

“Traditionally, this has been offered as prescheduled face-to-face consultations at an outpatient clinic, but remote monitoring and patient-initiated care may allow for more targeted and efficient uses of healthcare resources,” Dr. Berg said.

“The end goal of what you’re trying to do is increase the efficiency of outpatient care and provide more patient-tailored care,” Kasper Hermans, MD, said in an interview. He presented the results of the TeleSpA study. 

Dr. Hermans, who is a rheumatology fellow and PhD candidate at Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands, observed during his presentation at EULAR 2024 that there is an increasing demand for rheumatology services but an expected shortfall in the future workforce. Thus, “sustainable alternative strategies are needed for optimizing the efficiency of care,” he said.

People need to have timely access to care, Dr. Hermans stressed, but perhaps alternatives to the traditional models of care where patients are seen routinely every 6 or 12 months are needed, particularly as prior work had suggested that around one-third of people who were seen by a rheumatologist perhaps did not need to be.

A strategy of patient-initiated care — which is where people are seen by a healthcare provider only if they feel that they need to and request a consultation — is therefore an attractive proposition, particularly if it is backed up with remote monitoring, which is what the TeleSpA study was testing.
 

Two Distinct Studies

ReMonit and TeleSpA were two distinct studies. While both were noninferiority trials and involved patient-initiated care and telemonitoring of outpatients with SpA, that is where the similarities generally end.

Notably, ReMonit included a very specific population of patients — all had a diagnosis of axSpA and were being treated with a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor and had been on a stable dose for the last 6 months. For inclusion, they also had to have inactive disease or low disease activity, as indicated by an Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score (ASDAS) < 2.1.

ReMonit’s telemonitoring strategy involved participants completing monthly questionnaires using the Dignio smartphone app. Patients first completed the Patient Global Assessment (PGA) and noted whether they had experienced a flare in their disease. If they had a flare or their PGA score was 3 or higher, then they were asked to also complete the Bath Ankylosing Spondyloarthritis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI). If the BASDAI score was 4 or more, then the patient was called by a study nurse and offered a consultation.

“Patients in all three groups were recommended to take blood samples at the general practitioner’s or at the hospital every third month as a safety procedure when using TNF inhibitors,” Dr. Berg said.

The primary outcome was the proportion of people who remained with low disease activity (ASDAS < 2.1) at 6, 12, and 18 months in each of the three arms of the trial, which were patient-initiated care (n = 81), monthly remote monitoring (n = 80), or usual follow-up in the hospital every 6 months (n = 82).

TeleSpA on the other hand was a “much more pragmatic trial, much closer to actual care,” Dr. Hermans said. “We included axial spondyloarthritis, peripheral spondyloarthritis, or patients who had both axial and peripheral disease, including patients with psoriatic arthritis,” he said, adding that their inclusion was regardless of their baseline ASDAS based on C-reactive protein (ASDAS-CRP).

This means that patients who would otherwise have been classified at baseline as having high disease activity (by ASDAS-CRP or similar disease activity measures) could be included. The main proviso was that both the patient and their rheumatologist had to define the condition as being stable with an acceptable level of symptom control and no immediate plans to change treatment within the next 3 months.

TeleSpA’s remote monitoring strategy involved the use of SpA-Net, which Dr. Hermans and coinvestigators have described previously as “an ongoing, disease-specific, prospective, web-based registry for monitoring SpA in daily practice.” This captures a host of clinical and laboratory test information.

SpA-Net was used in both arms of the study. However, while the 100 participants in the standard-care arm completed questionnaires and had tests before every in-person visit that had been prescheduled with their rheumatologist, the 100 individuals in the patient-initiated care arm had no prescheduled in-person visits except for being seen at the start and end of the study. These patients were reminded via email to complete the necessary SpA-Net registry questionnaires at 6 months.

The primary outcome for TeleSpA was the total number of rheumatology visits, including both physical and telephone or video consultations, within a 1-year period. 
 

ReMonit Results

Berg reported that similar percentages of patients remained in a low disease activity state at 6, 12, and 18 months, regardless of the group that they had been randomized into, and that there was little change seen within the individual groups.

For instance, at 6, 12, and 18 months, 92%, 91%, and 92% of individuals in the patient-initiated arm had an ASDAS of < 2.1. Corresponding percentages for the usual-care arm were 96%, 93%, and 90% and for the remote-monitoring arm were 96%, 96%, and 94%.

Both patient-initiated care and remote monitoring were noninferior to usual care, and patient-initiated care was also noninferior to remote monitoring. There were no differences between the trial arms in terms of disease activity, measured using either ASDAS or BASDAI, at 6, 12, or 18 months.

Dr. Berg stated that “patient satisfaction was high in all three follow-up strategies, and there was the lowest resource use with patient-initiated care.” She concluded that “remote monitoring and patient-initiated care could be implemented in the follow-up of patients with axial spondyloarthritis and low disease activity.”
 

TeleSpA Results

In TeleSpA, people in the patient-initiated care and telemonitoring arm were seen a mean of 1.9 times over the course of the 1-year follow-up vs 2.6 for people in the usual care arm. The reduction was caused in part by the decrease in physical visits (1.4 vs 2.0) as there were the same mean number of telephone visits in each group. Overall, there was a 25.4% reduction in consultations comparing the patient-initiated care and telemonitoring arm with the usual-care arm.

Importantly, the intervention was noninferior regarding all of the predefined health outcomes: ASDAS, BASDAI, pain assessed using a visual analog scale, patient global assessment, and physician global assessment.

And more than 90% of participants in both groups reported having an overall good experience with their care.

Dr. Hermans noted after his presentation that an additional study had been performed where “we actively engaged with patients in the intervention group as well as healthcare providers to ask them what their experiences were with the intervention, how we could possibly improve it, and whether or not they thought that it was a valid approach to follow-up after the end of the study. And results were very, very reassuring.”

In terms of safety, eight serious adverse events were reported, but none were related to the study intervention, Dr. Hermans said. 

Dr. Hermans reported that there was “negligible difference” in the 1-year quality-adjusted life-years (+0.004, in favor of the intervention overall) and that, while healthcare costs were lower at €243/year for the entire intervention period, societal costs were higher, at €513/year vs usual care. The latter was thought to be “due to an unexpected rise in absenteeism that we think was most likely due to a small amount of outliers,” Dr. Hermans said. 

Nonetheless, using at willingness-to-pay threshold of €20,000/ quality-adjusted life year, he reported that the added value of patient-initiated care with remote monitoring yielded a potential net monetary benefit of +€322 from a healthcare perspective for the entire intervention period.

“We believe that these results support the fast-paced adoption of remote care interventions,” Dr. Hermans said. “In the context that I described earlier, of decreasing healthcare personnel and rising costs, we believe that this could be a valuable approach for follow-up for patients with stable axSpA.”

ReMonit was sponsored by Diakonhjemmet Hospital, and TeleSpA was sponsored by Maastricht University Medical Center, with funding from the Dutch Arthritis Society. Dr. Berg and Dr. Hermans had no relevant conflicts of interest to report.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Editor’s Note: This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.

VIENNA — People with spondyloarthritis (SpA) who have low or stable disease activity can effectively and safely be managed using a model of patient-initiated care with or without remote monitoring, suggested the results of two separate trials presented at the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) 2024 Annual Meeting. 

In the 18-month, single-center ReMonit study that included 243 people with axial SpA (axSpA), patient-initiated care was found to be noninferior for keeping them in a low-disease activity state, compared with both usual hospital follow-up and remote digital monitoring.

Meanwhile, in the 12-month, multicenter TeleSpA study, which included 200 patients with any type of SpA, the number of hospital visits needed by people who were randomly assigned to receive patient-initiated care together with asynchronous telemonitoring was significantly lower than for the usual-care group, with no detriment to the participants’ overall health outcomes or safety. Moreover, the strategy was deemed cost-effective from a healthcare provision perspective.
 

Time to Rationalize Healthcare Resources?

People with chronic rheumatic diseases such as axSpA require long-term follow-up in specialist healthcare centers, Inger Jorid Berg, MD, PhD, of Diakonhjemmet Hospital in Oslo, Norway, said when she presented the findings of the ReMonit study as a late-breaking abstract.

Sara Freeman/Medscape Medical News

“Traditionally, this has been offered as prescheduled face-to-face consultations at an outpatient clinic, but remote monitoring and patient-initiated care may allow for more targeted and efficient uses of healthcare resources,” Dr. Berg said.

“The end goal of what you’re trying to do is increase the efficiency of outpatient care and provide more patient-tailored care,” Kasper Hermans, MD, said in an interview. He presented the results of the TeleSpA study. 

Dr. Hermans, who is a rheumatology fellow and PhD candidate at Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands, observed during his presentation at EULAR 2024 that there is an increasing demand for rheumatology services but an expected shortfall in the future workforce. Thus, “sustainable alternative strategies are needed for optimizing the efficiency of care,” he said.

People need to have timely access to care, Dr. Hermans stressed, but perhaps alternatives to the traditional models of care where patients are seen routinely every 6 or 12 months are needed, particularly as prior work had suggested that around one-third of people who were seen by a rheumatologist perhaps did not need to be.

A strategy of patient-initiated care — which is where people are seen by a healthcare provider only if they feel that they need to and request a consultation — is therefore an attractive proposition, particularly if it is backed up with remote monitoring, which is what the TeleSpA study was testing.
 

Two Distinct Studies

ReMonit and TeleSpA were two distinct studies. While both were noninferiority trials and involved patient-initiated care and telemonitoring of outpatients with SpA, that is where the similarities generally end.

Notably, ReMonit included a very specific population of patients — all had a diagnosis of axSpA and were being treated with a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor and had been on a stable dose for the last 6 months. For inclusion, they also had to have inactive disease or low disease activity, as indicated by an Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score (ASDAS) < 2.1.

ReMonit’s telemonitoring strategy involved participants completing monthly questionnaires using the Dignio smartphone app. Patients first completed the Patient Global Assessment (PGA) and noted whether they had experienced a flare in their disease. If they had a flare or their PGA score was 3 or higher, then they were asked to also complete the Bath Ankylosing Spondyloarthritis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI). If the BASDAI score was 4 or more, then the patient was called by a study nurse and offered a consultation.

“Patients in all three groups were recommended to take blood samples at the general practitioner’s or at the hospital every third month as a safety procedure when using TNF inhibitors,” Dr. Berg said.

The primary outcome was the proportion of people who remained with low disease activity (ASDAS < 2.1) at 6, 12, and 18 months in each of the three arms of the trial, which were patient-initiated care (n = 81), monthly remote monitoring (n = 80), or usual follow-up in the hospital every 6 months (n = 82).

TeleSpA on the other hand was a “much more pragmatic trial, much closer to actual care,” Dr. Hermans said. “We included axial spondyloarthritis, peripheral spondyloarthritis, or patients who had both axial and peripheral disease, including patients with psoriatic arthritis,” he said, adding that their inclusion was regardless of their baseline ASDAS based on C-reactive protein (ASDAS-CRP).

This means that patients who would otherwise have been classified at baseline as having high disease activity (by ASDAS-CRP or similar disease activity measures) could be included. The main proviso was that both the patient and their rheumatologist had to define the condition as being stable with an acceptable level of symptom control and no immediate plans to change treatment within the next 3 months.

TeleSpA’s remote monitoring strategy involved the use of SpA-Net, which Dr. Hermans and coinvestigators have described previously as “an ongoing, disease-specific, prospective, web-based registry for monitoring SpA in daily practice.” This captures a host of clinical and laboratory test information.

SpA-Net was used in both arms of the study. However, while the 100 participants in the standard-care arm completed questionnaires and had tests before every in-person visit that had been prescheduled with their rheumatologist, the 100 individuals in the patient-initiated care arm had no prescheduled in-person visits except for being seen at the start and end of the study. These patients were reminded via email to complete the necessary SpA-Net registry questionnaires at 6 months.

The primary outcome for TeleSpA was the total number of rheumatology visits, including both physical and telephone or video consultations, within a 1-year period. 
 

ReMonit Results

Berg reported that similar percentages of patients remained in a low disease activity state at 6, 12, and 18 months, regardless of the group that they had been randomized into, and that there was little change seen within the individual groups.

For instance, at 6, 12, and 18 months, 92%, 91%, and 92% of individuals in the patient-initiated arm had an ASDAS of < 2.1. Corresponding percentages for the usual-care arm were 96%, 93%, and 90% and for the remote-monitoring arm were 96%, 96%, and 94%.

Both patient-initiated care and remote monitoring were noninferior to usual care, and patient-initiated care was also noninferior to remote monitoring. There were no differences between the trial arms in terms of disease activity, measured using either ASDAS or BASDAI, at 6, 12, or 18 months.

Dr. Berg stated that “patient satisfaction was high in all three follow-up strategies, and there was the lowest resource use with patient-initiated care.” She concluded that “remote monitoring and patient-initiated care could be implemented in the follow-up of patients with axial spondyloarthritis and low disease activity.”
 

TeleSpA Results

In TeleSpA, people in the patient-initiated care and telemonitoring arm were seen a mean of 1.9 times over the course of the 1-year follow-up vs 2.6 for people in the usual care arm. The reduction was caused in part by the decrease in physical visits (1.4 vs 2.0) as there were the same mean number of telephone visits in each group. Overall, there was a 25.4% reduction in consultations comparing the patient-initiated care and telemonitoring arm with the usual-care arm.

Importantly, the intervention was noninferior regarding all of the predefined health outcomes: ASDAS, BASDAI, pain assessed using a visual analog scale, patient global assessment, and physician global assessment.

And more than 90% of participants in both groups reported having an overall good experience with their care.

Dr. Hermans noted after his presentation that an additional study had been performed where “we actively engaged with patients in the intervention group as well as healthcare providers to ask them what their experiences were with the intervention, how we could possibly improve it, and whether or not they thought that it was a valid approach to follow-up after the end of the study. And results were very, very reassuring.”

In terms of safety, eight serious adverse events were reported, but none were related to the study intervention, Dr. Hermans said. 

Dr. Hermans reported that there was “negligible difference” in the 1-year quality-adjusted life-years (+0.004, in favor of the intervention overall) and that, while healthcare costs were lower at €243/year for the entire intervention period, societal costs were higher, at €513/year vs usual care. The latter was thought to be “due to an unexpected rise in absenteeism that we think was most likely due to a small amount of outliers,” Dr. Hermans said. 

Nonetheless, using at willingness-to-pay threshold of €20,000/ quality-adjusted life year, he reported that the added value of patient-initiated care with remote monitoring yielded a potential net monetary benefit of +€322 from a healthcare perspective for the entire intervention period.

“We believe that these results support the fast-paced adoption of remote care interventions,” Dr. Hermans said. “In the context that I described earlier, of decreasing healthcare personnel and rising costs, we believe that this could be a valuable approach for follow-up for patients with stable axSpA.”

ReMonit was sponsored by Diakonhjemmet Hospital, and TeleSpA was sponsored by Maastricht University Medical Center, with funding from the Dutch Arthritis Society. Dr. Berg and Dr. Hermans had no relevant conflicts of interest to report.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Editor’s Note: This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.