Multicentric Castleman’s disease associated with IgA vasculitis (Henoch-Schönlein purpura) responding well to tocilizumab: a case report

Therapeutic potential of single-nucleotide polymorphism-mediated interleukin-6 receptor blockade in cancer treatment: A Mendelian randomization study

Background

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a crucial member of the cytokine network and plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of various diseases, including cancer. IL-6 receptor (IL-6R) blockade is widely employed as a therapeutic strategy; however, its efficacy in anticancer therapy remains ambiguous.

Methods

An inverse variance-weighted Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was conducted to assess the causal effects exerted by IL-6R blockade in remediating cancer. Drug-targeted single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were introduced within 300 kb of the IL-6R gene. An instrumental variable comprising 26 SNPs represented IL-6 signaling downregulation and C-reactive protein level reduction. Datasets pertaining to the 33 types of cancer investigated in this study were acquired from the FinnGen genome-wide association study.

Results

The selected instrumental variable lowered fibrinogen levels, confirming its ability to mimic IL-6R blockade. IL-6R blockade exhibited therapeutic effects on five different cancer types documented in the FinnGen database (N = 334,364, including 76,781 cancer patients): bladder (odds ratios (OR) = 0.563), laryngeal (OR = 0.293), eye (OR = 0.098), gallbladder (OR = 0.059), and myeloid leukemia (OR = 0.442); however, it simultaneously elevated the risk of developing basal cell carcinoma (OR = 1.312) and melanoma (OR = 1.311). Sensitivity analyses did not alter the primary results.

Conclusion

Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the potential and efficacy of SNP-based IL-6R blockade in treating cancer.

Case report: Importance of early and continuous tocilizumab therapy in nephrotic syndrome associated with idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease: A case series

Idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease (iMCD) is a systemic and polyclonal lymphoproliferative disease involving multiple organs, including the kidneys, due to the overproduction of interleukin-6 (IL-6). Recently, several reports have suggested that excessive IL-6 actions in iMCD could have a causal relationship with the development of diverse histopathological renal manifestations that cause nephrotic syndrome. However, the treatment for such cases remains unclear. We report a series of three cases of nephrotic syndrome due to iMCD that helps to delineate the importance of early and continuous therapy with the anti-interleukin-6 receptor antibody tocilizumab. First, treatment was suspended for infectious control, and the patient presented with nephrotic syndrome due to diffuse mesangial and endocapillary hypercellularity without immune deposits complicating acute kidney injury. Second, iMCD was treated with prednisolone alone. The patient suddenly developed nephrotic syndrome due to immune-complex glomerulonephritis, not otherwise specified, complicated with acute kidney injury. In the third case, nephrotic syndrome secondary to membranous glomerulonephritis was diagnosed, with a skin rash and IgE antibodies to tocilizumab, and was therefore treated with prednisolone alone. In contrast to the first two cases, the third progressed to end-stage renal disease on hemodialysis. Taken together, this series suggests that clinicians should maintain clinical vigilance for iMCD as a possible underlying component of nephrotic syndrome, since iMCD presents with a variety of renal pathologies. Prompt initiation and continuous administration of tocilizumab are likely key determinants of renal outcomes in such cases. In particular, when tocilizumab is suspended due to infection or in the perioperative period, consideration of its expeditious resumption should be made, taking into account both the withdrawal period and systemic conditions.

Mediterranean fever gene variants modify clinical phenotypes of idiopathic multi-centric Castleman disease

Four cases of idiopathic multi-centric Castleman disease (iMCD) reportedly have variants in hereditary autoinflammatory disease-related genes; however, the frequency and role of these variants in iMCD is still unknown. We therefore investigated such gene variants among patients with iMCD and aimed to reveal the relationship between iMCD and autoinflammatory disease-related genes. We reviewed 14 Japanese iMCD patients who were recruited between January 2015 and September 2019. All patients met both the Japanese tentative diagnostic criteria for Castleman disease and the international consensus diagnostic criteria for iMCD. We performed genetic analyses for 31 autoinflammatory disease-related genes by targeted next-generation sequencing. The MEFV gene variants were observed in 10 of 14 patients with iMCD. Although iMCD had a high percentage of exons 2 or 3 variants of MEFV, comparison of data from healthy Japanese subjects indicated that there was no significant difference in the percentage between healthy Japanese subjects and patients with iMCD. Variants of uncertain significance (VUS) in the TNFRSF1A and CECR1 genes were observed in two of the patients, respectively. We divided patients into two groups-those with MEFV variants (excluding E148Q variants) and those without MEFV variants-and compared the clinical characteristics between these two groups. Patients with MEFV variants, excluding E148Q variants, exhibited a significantly higher likelihood of fever and significantly lower levels of hemoglobin than those lacking MEFV variants. Our results indicated that patients with iMCD tended to have a high frequency of MEFV gene variants and the presence of such variants can affect iMCD clinical phenotypes.

Analysis of Clinical Characteristics, Pathological Changes and Changes of Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-Reactive Protein (CRP) in Children with Castleman's Disease

Background

The aim of this study was to analyze the pathological changes, clinical characteristics and changes in immunity, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in children with Castleman’s disease (CD).

Material/Methods

A total of 15 CD child patients were enrolled as observation group, while 20 normal children receiving healthy examination were enrolled as healthy control group. The pathological changes, clinical characteristics and changes in immunity and serum IL-6 and CRP expressions were retrospectively analyzed in observation group.

Results

The clinical manifestation of unicentric CD (UCD) was mainly enlargement of cervical lymph nodes without liver-spleen enlargement and fever, and the major pathological type was the hyaline-vascular type. Multicentric CD (MCD) child patients all had anemia, fever and other systemic symptoms, and the major pathological type was the plasma-cell type. There were expressions of the immune indexes, including cluster of differentiation 3 (CD3), CD4, CD8, CD20, and CD79, in a certain degree, while CD138 and VS38C expressions displayed the polyclonal proliferation of plasma cells, rather than neoplastic proliferation. The Epstein-Barr virus and human herpes virus-8 detection results were negative, and CD21 in follicular dendritic cells in abnormal germinal center was positive. The expression levels of serum IL-6 and CRP in observation group were higher than those in control group (P<0.05).

Conclusions

There are immune dysfunction and increased expressions of serum IL-6 and CRP in child patients with CD, so it can be speculated that the immune abnormality and overexpression of serum inflammatory factors may be associated with the occurrence of CD.

The efficacy and safety of anti-interleukin-6 receptor monoclonal blockade in a renal transplant patient with Castleman disease: early post-transplant outcome

Background

Multicentric Castleman disease (MCD) is an uncommon lymphoproliferative disease characterized by systemic inflammatory reactions associated with the dysregulated production of interleukin-6 (IL-6). In patients with MCD, renal involvement is uncommon, with only one report published regarding kidney transplantation (KTx) to treat end-stage renal disease (ESRD) secondary to MCD. Recent clinical observations have shown that IL-6 production is implicated in allograft rejection, while IL-6 receptor blockade (with tocilizumab [TCZ]) reduces alloantibody generation and thereby improves graft survival; however, the efficacy and safety of TCZ in MCD patients undergoing KTx is still unknown.

Case presentation

Herein, we describe the case of a 50-year-old man with MCD who received living-donor KTx for ESRD. Post-operative immunosuppression consisted of a triple-drug regimen (tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil and methylprednisolone) with TCZ that was administered intravenously every 2 weeks. At 17 months post-transplantation, the patient remains asymptomatic, and the allograft pathology has shown no evidence of rejection and no development of de novo donor-specific antibody (DSA).

Conclusions

To our knowledge, this is the second reported case of an MCD patient with ESRD who underwent successful KTx. TCZ safely supported the patient during the perioperative period, and this drug may be useful for blocking the generation of donor-specific antibodies and reducing the risk of rejection episodes. KTx in combination with TCZ is thus considered a viable treatment option for ESRD due to MCD.

Tocilizumab in the treatment of myocardial infarction

Tocilizumab (TCZ) is an important biologic response modifier that rheumatologists routinely employ in the treatment of several systemic autoimmune diseases. TCZ binds to interleukin (IL)-6 receptors, inhibits cellular activation, and mitigates inflammation by IL-6. In mid-2017, TCZ was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for its first nonrheumatologic condition, the treatment of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell-induced severe or life-threatening cytokine release syndrome in patients 2 years of age or older. With this approval and with the increasing use of TCZ off-label for other non-rheumatologic conditions such as Castleman's Disease and its variant TAFRO syndrome, where else might TCZ be successfully utilized as treatment? Recently interesting data has been published regarding possible use of TCZ in the treatment of myocardial infarction. This review focuses on the role of IL-6 and its receptor in myocardial inflammation and association with adverse clinical outcomes. Discussed are one animal study and two human trials that have been published studying the effect of TCZ in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Finally, this review summarizes the current data and makes recommendations for future clinical trial development in what hopefully will be a promising application of TCZ for a serious nonrheumatologic condition.