August 2021

Baricitinib and the Risk of Incident Interstitial Lung Disease: A Descriptive Clinical Case Report from Clinical Trials

Rheumatol Ther. 2021 Jun 28. DOI: 10.1007/s40744-021-00332-w

Findings from a descriptive clinical case report from clinical trials show that patients with RA, treated with baricitinib, are at low risk to developing non-infectious interstitial lung disease (ILD) during treatment.Salvarani, et al. used a descriptive, multicentric, retrospective cohort study of eight randomised trials and one long-term extension study to estimate the number of incident ILD cases reported. Their findings showed that the risk of developing non-infectious ILD during baricitinib...

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Upadacitinib Monotherapy Improves Patient-Reported Outcomes in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Results From SELECT-EARLY and SELECT-MONOTHERAPY

Rheumatology (Oxford). 2021;60(7):3209–21

Upadacitinib treatment results in statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in health-related quality of life.Strand, et al. evaluated the effect of upadacitinib monotherapy versus methotrexate (MTX) on patient-reported outcomes (PRO) in MTX-naïve and MTX-inadequate responder patients with moderately-to-severely active RA. Their research from the SELECT-EARLY and SELECT-MONOTHERAPY randomised controlled trials found that upadacitinib monotherapy resulted in clinically mean...

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Median Time to Pain Improvement and the Impact of Baseline Pain Severity on Pain Response in Patients with Psoriatic Arthritis Treated with Tofacitinib

RMD Open. 2021;7(2):e001609.

Tofacitinib 5 mg twice daily provides clinically meaningful improvements in pain for patients with PsA.Reducing pain is a primary treatment concern for patients with PsA. As such, de Vlam, et al. set out to evaluate the time to pain improvement and the impact of baseline pain severity on pain response in patients with PsA receiving tofacitinib.Using data from the OPAL Broaden and OPAL Beyond trials, they discovered that clinically important improvements in pain were experienced by more patients,...

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July 2021

Effect of janus kinase inhibitors and methotrexate combination on malignancy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Auto Immun Highlights. 2021;12(1):8.

The combination of JAK inhibitors with MTX is not associated with an increased risk of malignancy when compared to MTX alone. Although long-term studies are needed to confirm this conclusion from short-term studies. Although it is now known that patients with RA are predisposed to an increased risk of malignancy, especially malignant lymphomas, lung cancers and non-melanoma skin cancer, it remains unclear whether the combination therapy is associated with a higher risk.To this end, Solipuram, et...

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Upadacitinib in Patients with Psoriatic Arthritis and Inadequate Response to Biologics: 56-Week Data from the Randomized Controlled Phase 3 SELECT-PsA 2 Study

Rheumatol Ther. 2021;8(2):903–919

Fifty-six-week data suggest that upadacitinib could be a favourable long-term treatment option in patients with PsA who are refractory to biologic therapy.As the need for additional therapeutic agents that can effectively control disease activity continues, new data from a 56-week analysis of the oral reversible JAK1 inhibitor, upadacitinib, currently under investigation for the treatment of PsA, shows that efficacy of the drug is maintained over the duration of this study.Mease, et al. explored...

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Associations of baseline use of biologic or targeted synthetic DMARDs with COVID-19 severity in rheumatoid arthritis: Results from the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance physician registry

Ann Rheum Dis. 2021 May 28. DOI: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2021-220418

Results from the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance physician registry show that people with RA using rituximab or JAKi, at COVID-19 onset, are more likely to experience poor COVID-19 outcomes, ranging from hospitalisation to death, compared with use of TNFi.The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on people with RA, many of whom are treated with b/tsDMARDs. To help address some of the knowledge gaps around the influence of b/tsDMARDs on COVID-19 outcomes, Sparks, et al. ana...

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

JAK/STAT pathway and nociceptive cytokine signalling in rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis

Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2021;39(3):668-675.

The JAK/STAT pathway is receiving increasing attention in modulation of nociceptive responses, given its clear role in cytokine signalling. The authors of this review speculate that JAKinibs may have an effect on the modulation of nociception and reduction of pain.Crispino N, et al. review the impact of pain in patients with rheumatic disease and the physiological basis of modulating nociceptive pain. They examine the role of cytokines in the modulation of pain and analyse current clinical JAKin...

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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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Efficacy of baricitinib in patients with moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis with 3 years of treatment: results from a long-term study

Rheumatology (Oxford). 2021;60(5):2256-2266.

Baricitinib 4mg may be considered for long-term treatment of early and refractory rheumatoid arthritis following results demonstrating efficacy and tolerability for up to 3 years.Smolen JS, et al. analysed data from two completed 52-week, phase III studies, RA-BEGIN (DMARD-naïve) and RA-BEAM (MTX-IR), and one ongoing long-term extension study (RA-BEYOND) – providing data for 148 weeks in total. Results demonstrated that the long-term maintenance of clinically relevant treatment goals, including ...

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