Systemic sclerosis Denton, Christopher P, Prof; Khanna, Dinesh, Prof
The Lancet (British edition),
10/2017, Letnik:
390, Številka:
10103
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Summary Systemic sclerosis, also called scleroderma, is an immune-mediated rheumatic disease that is characterised by fibrosis of the skin and internal organs and vasculopathy. Although systemic ...sclerosis is uncommon, it has a high morbidity and mortality. Improved understanding of systemic sclerosis has allowed better management of the disease, including improved classification and more systematic assessment and follow-up. Additionally, treatments for specific complications have emerged and a growing evidence base supports the use of immune suppression for the treatment of skin and lung fibrosis. Some manifestations of the disease, such as scleroderma renal crisis, pulmonary arterial hypertension, digital ulceration, and gastro-oesophageal reflux, are now treatable. However, the burden of non-lethal complications associated with systemic sclerosis is substantial and is likely to become more of a challenge. Here, we review the clinical features of systemic sclerosis and describe the best practice approaches for its management. Furthermore, we identify future areas for development.
Since the 1st World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension (WSPH) in 1973, pulmonary hypertension (PH) has been arbitrarily defined as mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP) ≥25 mmHg at rest, measured ...by right heart catheterisation. Recent data from normal subjects has shown that normal mPAP was 14.0±3.3 mmHg. Two standard deviations above this mean value would suggest mPAP >20 mmHg as above the upper limit of normal (above the 97.5th percentile). This definition is no longer arbitrary, but based on a scientific approach. However, this abnormal elevation of mPAP is not sufficient to define pulmonary vascular disease as it can be due to an increase in cardiac output or pulmonary arterial wedge pressure. Thus, this 6th WSPH Task Force proposes to include pulmonary vascular resistance ≥3 Wood Units in the definition of all forms of pre-capillary PH associated with mPAP >20 mmHg. Prospective trials are required to determine whether this PH population might benefit from specific management.Regarding clinical classification, the main Task Force changes were the inclusion in group 1 of a subgroup "pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) long-term responders to calcium channel blockers", due to the specific prognostic and management of these patients, and a subgroup "PAH with overt features of venous/capillaries (pulmonary veno-occlusive disease/pulmonary capillary haemangiomatosis) involvement", due to evidence suggesting a continuum between arterial, capillary and vein involvement in PAH.
Raynaud phenomenon is a symptom complex caused by impaired digital perfusion and can occur as a primary phenomenon or secondary to a wide range of underlying causes. Raynaud phenomenon occurs in ...virtually all patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and is often the earliest clinical manifestation to occur. Careful assessment is required in patients with Raynaud phenomenon to avoid missing secondary causes such as SSc. Digital ulcers are a painful and disabling visible manifestation of digital vascular injury in patients with SSc. Progress has been made in the classification and assessment of digital ulcers and in understanding ulcer pathogenesis, and there are a wide range of treatments available to both prevent and heal digital ulcers, some of which are also used in Raynaud phenomenon management. In this Review, the assessment of patients with Raynaud phenomenon is discussed, including 'red flags' that are suggestive of SSc. The pathogenesis, classification and assessment of SSc-associated digital ulcers are also covered, alongside an overview of management approaches for SSc-associated Raynaud phenomenon and digital ulcers. Finally, unmet needs are discussed and the concept of a unified vascular phenotype in which therapies that affect the vasculature to support disease modification strategies is introduced.
Objective: Some patients with interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) other than idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) develop a progressive fibrosing phenotype. We investigated the diagnosis and management ...of non-IPF ILDs using data from a survey of physicians and from US insurance claims.
Methods: Pulmonologists, rheumatologists and internists in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, UK and US who had managed ≥10 patients with non-IPF ILDs in the past year, including those with progressive fibrosing ILDs, completed an online survey. Data on US insurance and prescription claims were obtained from a repository that aggregates data on claims routed from providers or pharmacies to payers.
Results: In May-June 2017, 243 pulmonologists, 203 rheumatologists and 40 internists completed an online survey. Respondents estimated that 18-32% of patients diagnosed with non-IPF ILDs develop progressive fibrosis and that time from symptom onset to death in these patients was 61-80 months. Drug treatment was given to 50-75% of patients with non-IPF progressive fibrosing ILDs. Reasons for patients not being treated included that physicians considered patients to have mild or slowly progressing disease, or did not believe that available treatments are effective or well tolerated. Corticosteroids were the preferred first-line treatment for all types of non-IPF ILD. There was considerable heterogeneity in preferences for second- and third-line treatments. US insurance claims data from 3823 patients indicated that, in 2016, 50-75% of patients with ILDs received drug treatment (mostly corticosteroids) for their ILD.
Conclusions: Physicians estimate that 18-32% of patients diagnosed with non-IPF ILDs develop a progressive fibrosing phenotype and that these patients experience significant delays in the diagnosis of ILD and the detection of progressive fibrosis. Between 25% and 50% of patients with progressive fibrosing ILDs do not receive drug therapy. There is an unmet need for effective and well tolerated treatments for progressive fibrosing ILDs.
Systemic sclerosis (scleroderma) leads to morbidity and mortality through a combination of inflammation, fibrosis and vascular damage leading to internal organ complications affecting the heart, ...lung, kidneys and bowel. More than half of those diagnosed ultimately die from the disease. Current treatments focus on broad spectrum immunosuppression or organ-based therapy for complication such as lung fibrosis, pulmonary or systemic hypertension. Targeting peptide mediators such as endothelin-1 have already led to licensed effective therapies for SSc vasculopathy. Outcomes are improving but as well as providing a major clinical challenge there are great opportunities for research translation that can be expected to improve understanding of the pathogenesis of SSc and also develop better and more targeted therapy. Key pathways and mediators can be identified within the skin and blood vessels and these are now being examined in early stage clinical trials. Promising results are emerging from targeting cytokine signalling, including IL-6, and from other immune-inflammatory therapies including lipid mediators such as LPA1. Other approaches to modulate TGFbeta and other profibrotic pathways also have potential although safety and toxicity remain to be determined. Since many profibrotic pathways have important physiological roles the assessment of safety and toxicity will be paramount. Nevertheless, advances in understanding the interplay between different pathological processes and progress in clinical trial design and patients stratification mean that targeted therapies are emerging and likely to be further developed and refined to have application in other important clinical contexts such as lung fibrosis.
Pulmonary complications are an important extra-articular feature of autoimmune rheumatic diseases and a major cause of mortality. The underlying pathogenesis probably involves multiple cellular ...compartments, including the epithelium, lung fibroblasts, and the innate and adaptive immune system. Heterogeneity in the extent and progression of lung fibrosis probably reflects differences in underlying pathogenic mechanisms. Growing understanding of the key pathogenic drivers of lung fibrosis might lead to the development of more effective targeted therapies to replicate the treatment advances in other aspects of these diseases. Interstitial lung disease (ILD) in connective tissue disease (CTD) is characterized using the classification of the idiopathic interstitial pneumonias. Systemic sclerosis is most frequently associated with ILD and, in most of these patients, ILD manifests as a histological pattern of nonspecific interstitial pneumonia. Conversely, in rheumatoid arthritis, the pattern of ILD is most often usual interstitial pneumonia. The key goals of clinical assessment of patients with both ILD and CTD are the detection of ILD and prognostic evaluation to determine which patients should be treated. Data from treatment trials in systemic sclerosis support the use of immunosuppressive therapy, with the treatment benefit largely relating to the prevention of progression of lung disease.
Objective
Tocilizumab (TCZ) has demonstrated lung function preservation in 2 randomized controlled trials in early systemic sclerosis (SSc). This effect has yet to be characterized in terms of ...radiographically evident quantitative lung involvement. We undertook this study to assess the impact of TCZ on lung function preservation in a post hoc analysis, stratifying treatment arms according to the degree of lung involvement.
Methods
The focuSSced trial was a phase III randomized placebo‐controlled trial of TCZ in patients with SSc and progressive skin disease. Participants underwent baseline and serial spirometry along with high‐resolution chest computed tomography at baseline and at week 48. Quantitative interstitial lung disease (QILD) and fibrosis scores were assessed by computer software. We classified QILD into the following categories of lung involvement: mild (>5–10%), moderate (>10–20%), and severe (>20%).
Results
Of 210 participants recruited for the trial, 136 patients (65%) had ILD. The majority of these patients (77%) had moderate‐to‐severe involvement (defined as >10% lung involvement). The TCZ arm demonstrated preservation of forced vital capacity percent predicted (FVC%) over 48 weeks (least squares mean change in FVC% = −0.1) compared to placebo (−6.3%). For mild, moderate, and severe QILD, the mean ± SD change in FVC% in the TCZ arm at 48 weeks were −4.1 ± 2.5% (n = 11), 0.7 ± 1.9% (n =19), and 2.1 ± 1.6% (n = 26), respectively, and in the placebo group were −10.0 ± 2.6% (n = 11), −5.7 ± 1.6% (n = 26), and −6.7 ± 2.0% (n = 16), respectively. Similar treatment‐related preservation findings were seen independent of fibrosis severity.
Conclusion
TCZ in early SSc–associated ILD with progressive skin disease stabilized FVC% over 48 weeks, independent of the extent of radiographically evident QILD.
Challenges in systemic sclerosis trial design Denton, Christopher P.
Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism,
December 2019, 2019-12-00, 20191201, Letnik:
49, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Systemic sclerosis (scleroderma; SSc) is an autoimmune rheumatic disease with high clinical burden and unmet need due to connective tissue fibrosis and vascular damage. It has the highest case ...specific mortality of any rheumatic disease, with approximately half of patients diagnosed eventually dying as a direct result of SSc. There are no approved diseases modifying treatments. This is partly related to the difficulty of conducting clinical trials for regulatory approval.
Traditionally skin thickness has been assessed using the modified Rodnan skin score (MRSS) that has been shown to correlate with survival and risk of complications in SSc. However recent trials have highlighted the limitations of MRSS which often improves over time, even on placebo.
A new composite measure integrating changes in multiple domains of lung function, skin, patients and physician global and HAQ disability index has been developed, the CRISS (Composite Response Index for Systemic Sclerosis). This measure looks promising and has provisional acceptance by American College of Rheumatology (designated ACR CRISS) but is unlikely to be strongly persuasive to Health Authorities in isolation unless there are also clinically meaningful changes in relevant domains that reflect how patients feel, function or survive.
The origin of myofibroblasts in fibrotic conditions remains unknown and in systemic sclerosis (SSc) it has been proposed that activation of local fibroblasts, trans-differentiation of perivascular or ...vascular cells, recruitment of fibrocyte progenitors, or epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) could be contributing. Data from our laboratory indicate that the epidermis in scleroderma is activated with the keratinocytes exhibiting a phenotype normally associated with tissue repair, including phosphorylation profiles indicative of TGFβ signaling. Since TGFβ is a known inducer of EMT, we investigated if there is evidence of this process in the SSc epidermis. In order to validate antibodies and primers, EMT was modeled in HaCaT cells cultured in the presence of TGFβ1. Skin sections were stained with phosho-SMAD2/3, as well as with epithelial and mesenchymal markers. Moreover, mRNA levels of transcription factors associated with EMT were studied in epidermal blister sheets. We observed critical changes in the scleroderma epidermis; showing significantly increased nuclear translocation of phosphorylated Smad2/3, consistent with active TGFβ signaling in SSc keratinocytes. While profound EMT could be induced in keratinocytes in vitro with the appearance of SNAI1/2 and FSP-1, and an accompanying loss of E-cadherin, in the scleroderma skin active TGFβ signaling was accompanied by only partial EMT-like changes characterised by induction of SNAI1 alone and with no loss of E-cadherin. Together, our findings support a model of altered differentiation and TGFβ dependent activation of scleroderma epithelial cells leading to a partially evoked EMT like process in the fibrotic skin.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare autoimmune connective tissue disease with multi-organ involvement, fibrosis and vasculopathy. Treatment in SSc, including early diffuse cutaneous SSc (dcSSc) and ...the use of organ-specific therapies, has improved, as evident from randomized clinical trials. Treatments for early dcSSc include immunosuppressive agents such as mycophenolate mofetil, methotrexate, cyclophosphamide, rituximab and tocilizumab. Patients with rapidly progressive early dcSSc might be eligible for autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, which can improve survival. Morbidity from interstitial lung disease and pulmonary arterial hypertension is improving with the use of proven therapies. Mycophenolate mofetil has surpassed cyclophosphamide as the initial treatment for SSc-interstitial lung disease. Nintedanib and possibly perfinidone can be considered in SSc pulmonary fibrosis. Pulmonary arterial hypertension is frequently treated with initial combination therapy (for example, with phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors and endothelin receptor antagonists) and, if necessary, the addition of a prostacyclin analogue. Raynaud phenomenon and digital ulcers are treated with dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers (especially nifedipine), then phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors or intravenous iloprost. Bosentan can reduce the development of new digital ulcers. Trial data for other manifestations are mostly lacking. Research is needed to develop targeted and highly effective treatments, best practices for organ-specific screening and early intervention, and sensitive outcome measurements.
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