September 2022

Consensus statement on blocking interleukin-6 receptor and interleukin-6 in inflammatory conditions: an update

doi: 10.1136/ard-2022-222784.

Blocking the IL-6R is a major therapeutic advance for many diseases in adults and children. Updated consensus statement provides guidance to rheumatologists and other experts, as well as patients and administrators, on managing patients with the use of drugs blocking the IL-6 pathway.

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June 2022

Effectiveness of TNF-inhibitors, abatacept, IL6-inhibitors and JAK-inhibitors in 31 846 patients with rheumatoid arthritis in 19 registers from the ‘JAK-pot’ collaboration

Ann Rheum Dis. 2022 doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2022-222586

Observational study of data, from large international collective of registers, finds similar overall drug retention rates between RA treatment groups.

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Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with conventional, targeted and biological disease‑modifying antirheumatic drugs in the setting of liver injury and non‑alcoholic fatty liver disease

Rheumatol Int. 2022 doi: 10.1007/s00296-022-05143-y

An increased incidence of liver diseases emphasizes greater caution in prescribing antirheumatic drugs, owing to their hepatotoxicity. However, drug-induced liver injury (DILI) in RA patients represents an aetiological and therapeutic challenge, due to the intertwining of inflammatory and metabolic elements mediated by IL-6 and TNF-α.

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Upadacitinib as induction and maintenance therapy for moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis: Results from three Phase 3, multicentre, double-blind, randomised trials

Lancet 2022;399(10341):2113–28 doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00581-5

The results of two induction studies (UC1 and UC2) and a maintenance study (UC3) show upadacitinib superiority to placebo in treating ulcerative colitis (UC). Rates of clinical remission were significantly higher for all upadacitinib doses versus placebo in all three studies.

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March 2022

Baricitinib further enhances disease-modifying effects by uncoupling the link between disease activity and joint structural progression in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Ann Rheum Dis. 2022. Epub ahead of print doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2021-221323

Baricitinib reduces structural damage progression versus placebo with background MTX and/or MTX, even in patients with moderate or high disease activity.In patients with RA, TNFi, IL-6i and rituximab have been shown to uncouple the link between disease activity and radiographic progression such that patients are protected from structural damage progression even if remission/low disease activity is not achieved.As such, Lopez-Romero, et al. aimed to evaluate if baricitinib further enhances diseas...

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July 2021

Comparison of the effects of baricitinib and tocilizumab on disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a propensity score matching analysis

Clin Rheumatol. 2021 Jun 16. DOI: 10.1007/s10067-021-05815-3

The influence of inflammation on patient global assessment (PGA) improvements differs between baricitinib and tocilizumab differs. Adequate PGA improvement remains one of the unmet needs in current RA treatment.Asai, et al. compared the effects of baricitinib and tocilizumab on disease activity in patients with RA while investigating the influence of inflammation on PGA improvement.Using data from a multicentre registry, 48 propensity-matched pairs of patients, who had been observed for longer t...

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June 2021

Tofacitinib versus tocilizumab in the treatment of biological-naïve or previous biological-failure patients with methotrexate-refractory active rheumatoid arthritis

RMD Open. 2021;7(2):e001601.

Findings from a multicentre cohort study in Japan provide important information that is expected to aid in determining the position of tofacitinib in the treatment algorithm for RA.Mori S, et al. compared therapeutic outcomes, from real-world registries, at 12 months between tofacitinib-treated and tocilizumab-treated patients to clarify whether tofacitinib should only be considered as an option for patients who have either failed to respond to at least one bDMARD or are MTX-resistant/-intoleran...

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February 2021

Diminished cytokine-induced Jak/STAT signaling is associated with rheumatoid arthritis and disease activity

PLoS ONE 2021;16(1):e0244187

This analysis provides evidence that immune cell signalling pathways are important in RA. There were consistent differences between RA patients and healthy controls in IFNα, IL-6, IL-10 and GM-CSF+ IL-2 induced JAK/STAT signalling in multiple immune cell subsets.We know that RA is characterised by dysregulation of immune responses, but the exact cause is unknown. Recently, single-cell transcriptomics and mass cytometry confirmed the critical role of activated immune cells and fibroblasts, increa...

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October 2020

Preclinical characterisation of itacitinib, a Novel Selective Inhibitor of JAK1, for the Treatment of Inflammatory Diseases

European Journal of Pharmacology. 2020 Oct 15;885:173505. doi: 10.1016/j.ejphar.2020.173505

Itacitinib is an orally active JAK inhibitor and effectively delayed disease onset, reduced symptom severity, and accelerated recovery of inflammatory diseases in mouse models. Covington M et al demonstrated itacitinib’s high selectivity for JAK 1, its inhibition on IL-2 induced T cell proliferation and JAK/STAT signalling, its ability to also inhibit of the JAK/STAT pathway in response to IL-6 stimulation, and its effect on rat adjuvant induced arthritis model. The study used recombinant enzym...

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Efficacy of Baricitinib in Treating Rheumatoid Arthritis: Modulatory Effects on Fibrotic and Inflammatory Biomarkers in a Real-Life Setting

Int Immunopharmacol. 2020 Sep;86:106748.

BARI demonstrated to be a safe immune modulator that reduces the concentrations biomarkers of lung fibrosis and inflammation in RA patients, including a subgroup with interstitial lung involvement. Professor Alessandro and colleagues analysed the effects of baricitinib in a population of RA and RA-ILD patients in a real-life setting, describing any changes in lung function parameters, serum inflammatory biomarkers and fibrotic biomarkers after 6 months of treatment. Fifteen patients were recruit...

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