Phase 2 Trial of Anti-TL1A Monoclonal Antibody Tulisokibart for Ulcerative Colitis

N Engl J Med. 2024;391:1119-1129 doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa23140

Sands et al. demonstrated that 12-week treatment of tulisokibart, a monoclonal antibody targeting TL1A, significantly improved clinical remission rates compared to placebo in patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis.

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June 2024

A disease-associated gene desert directs macrophage inflammation through ETS2

Nature 2024 doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07501-1 Epub ahead of print

Stankey, et al. used functional genomics to show that the ETS2 gene is a central regulator of human inflammatory macrophages. They also found that ETS2 was disrupted by JAK inhibitors and MEK inhibitors, with multiple MEK inhibitors being shown to downregulate ETS2-target genes.

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April 2024

The 2023 EULAR recommendations provided an updated consensus on the pharmacological management of PsA with a new overarching principle and recommendation for 2023. Recent MOA safety data emphasised the importance of patient-specific benefit-risk profiling in JAKi therapy, and extra-musculoskeletal (MSK) manifestations related to PsA should be considered during drug selection.

September 2023

Whole blood transcriptome profiling reveals differential gene expression in patients with active PsA from the DISCOVER-1 and DISCOVER-2 clinical studies in comparison with healthy controls.

August 2023

Differential Properties of Janus Kinase Inhibitors in the Treatment of Immune-mediated Inflammatory Diseases

Rheumatology (Oxford) 2023;63(2):298–308 doi 10.1093/rheumatology/kead448

JAKis differ in structure, which affects their inhibitory concentration for different JAKs.

This review by Taylor, et al. compares the pharmacological profiles of JAKis, including abrocitinib, baricitinib, filgotinib, peficitinib, tofacitinib, and upadacitinib.

June 2023

Mirikizumab as induction and maintenance therapy for ulcerative colitis

N Engl J Med 2023;388(26):2444–2455 doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2207940

Mirikizumab was more effective than placebo in inducing and maintaining clinical remission in patients with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. D’Haens, et al. also noted that opportunistic infections and cancer developed in a small number of mirikizumab-treated patients.

March 2023

Upadacitinib Induction and Maintenance Therapy for Crohn’s Disease

N Engl J Med 2023; 388:1966–1980 doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2212728

Upadacitinib was associated with higher percentages of remission and endoscopic response regardless of previous failure of biologic therapy. This paper reports the Phase 3 efficacy and safety results of upadacitinib in patients with moderate-to-severe Crohn’s disease.

November 2022

This is the largest meta-analysis to date, assessing the risk of OIs (Opportunistic infection) in patients with PsA. In coming to this conclusion, a systematic review and meta-analysis was undertaken to estimate the incidence of OIs following treatment with b- and tsDMARDs.

September 2022

Olokizumab versus Placebo or Adalimumab in Rheumatoid Arthritis

N Engl J Med. 2022;387(8):715–726. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2201302

Phase 3 trial of olokizumab, a direct inhibitor of the IL-6 ligand, demonstrates superiority to placebo with respect to an ACR20 response at week 12 and noninferiority to adalimumab (all combined with methotrexate), in patients with RA.

May 2022

Two Phase 3 Trials of Baricitinib for Alopecia Areata

N Engl J Med. 2022. Epub ahead of print doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2110343

Phase 3 trials in patients with severe alopecia areata show that baricitinib is superior to placebo with respect to hair regrowth at 36 weeks.
Alopecia areata is characterised by nonscarring hair loss that can affect any hair-bearing site. Although mild cases of this emotionally- and psychosocially-distressing autoimmune disease may resolve within 12 months, more severe forms of the disease are unlikely to remit without treatment.