Immunoadsorption for autoimmune encephalitis

The Molecular Role of Immune Cells in Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a rare and severe condition characterized by chamber dilation and impaired contraction of the left ventricle. It constitutes a fundamental etiology for profound heart failure and abrupt cardiac demise, rendering it a prominent clinical indication for heart transplantation (HTx) among both adult and pediatric populations. DCM arises from various etiologies, including genetic variants, epigenetic disorders, infectious insults, autoimmune diseases, and cardiac conduction abnormalities. The maintenance of cardiac function involves two distinct types of immune cells: resident immune cells and recruited immune cells. Resident immune cells play a crucial role in establishing a harmonious microenvironment within the cardiac tissue. Nevertheless, in response to injury, cardiomyocytes initiate a cytokine cascade that attracts peripheral immune cells, thus perturbing this intricate equilibrium and actively participating in the initiation and pathological remodeling of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), particularly during the progression of myocardial fibrosis. Additionally, immune cells assume a pivotal role in orchestrating the inflammatory processes, which are intimately linked to the prognosis of DCM. Consequently, understanding the molecular role of various immune cells and their regulation mechanisms would provide an emerging era for managing DCM. In this review, we provide a summary of the most recent advancements in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of immune cells in DCM. Additionally, we evaluate the effectiveness and limitations of immunotherapy approaches for the treatment of DCM, with the aim of optimizing future immunotherapeutic strategies for this condition.

Immunoadsorption and plasmapheresis at the ICU - A description of the frequencies and indications in a single center experience and a case report

Immunologically mediated diseases can lead to severe courses that have to be treated in an intensive care unit. The use of extracorporeal organ support systems (ventilation, ECMO) is common. A therapeutic principle for these diseases is the removal of disease-causing antibodies. This can be done nonspecifically by plasmapheresis or specifically by immune adsorption. While most intensive care units have the facilities for plasmapheresis (membrane plasma filtration), immunoadsorption is much less common. Over a period of 10 years, the numbers of immunoadsorption and plasmapheresis treatments performed in a single center intensive care unit are shown according to their indication (IA: 18 Pts, 58 treatments. PA: 54 Pts, 148 treatments). A case study of a patient with granulomatosis with polyangiitis shows the successful treatment with immunoadsorption. The advantages of immunoadsorption in patients with complex coagulation disorders and a critical clinical picture in terms of SIRS and ARDS are shown.

Diagnostic approach and treatment regimens in adult patients suffering from antibody-mediated or paraneoplastic encephalitis

Identification of patients with antibody-mediated encephalitis poses a diagnostic challenge and any delay in that respect will increase the interval until initiation of immunotherapy and may negatively affect the patient´s clinical outcome. Within this review we focus on therapeutic strategies in antibody-mediated encephalitis and propose how to proceed with patients, who are suspected to have encephalitis of unknown origin. We further briefly outline differences in treatment of paraneoplastic and antibody-mediated encephalitis according to its pathomechanisms.

The Role of Plasma Exchange in the Treatment of Refractory Autoimmune Neurological Diseases: a Narrative Review

Autoimmune neurological disorders are commonly treated with immunosuppressive therapy. In patients with refractory conditions, standard immunosuppression is often insufficient for complete recovery or to prevent relapses. These patients rely on other treatments to manage their disease. While treatment of refractory cases differs between diseases, intravenous immunoglobulin, plasma exchange (PLEX), and immune-modulating treatments are commonly used. In this review, we focus on five autoimmune neurological disorders that were the themes of the 2018 Midlands Neurological Society meeting on PLEX in refractory neurology: Autoimmune Encephalitis (AE), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum disorders (NMOSD), Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) and Myasthenia Gravis (MG). The diagnosis of inflammatory neuropathies is often challenging, and while PLEX can be very effective in refractory autoimmune diseases, its ineffectiveness can be confounded by misdiagnosis. One example is POEMS syndrome (characterized by Polyneuropathy Organomegaly, Endocrinopathy, Myeloma protein, Skin changes), which is often wrongly diagnosed as CIDP; and while CIDP responds well to PLEX, POEMS does not. Accurate diagnosis is therefore essential. Success rates can also differ within 'one' disease: e.g. response rates to PLEX are considerably higher in refractory relapsing remitting MS compared to primary or secondary progressive MS. When sufficient efforts are made to correctly pinpoint the diagnosis along with the type and subtype of refractory autoimmune disease, PLEX and other immunotherapies can play a valuable role in the patient management.

Performance, clinical effectiveness, and safety of immunoadsorption in a wide range of indications

Immunoadsorption is well known to selectively remove immunoglobulins and immune complexes from plasma and is applied in a variety of autoimmune diseases and for desensitization before, or at acute rejection after organ transplantation. Performance, safety, and clinical effectiveness of immunoadsorption were the aim of this study. This prospective, noninterventional, multicentre cohort study included patients treated with immunoadsorption (Immunosorba or GLOBAFFIN adsorbers) for any indication. Clinical effectiveness was assessed after termination of the patient's individual treatment schedule. Eighty‐one patients were included, 69 were treated with Immunosorba, 11 with GLOBAFFIN, one patient with both adsorbers. A majority of patients was treated for neurological indications, dilated cardiomyopathy, and before or after kidney or heart transplantation. Mean IgG reduction from pre‐ to post‐treatment was 69.9% ± 11.5% for Immunosorba and 74.1% ± 5.0% for GLOBAFFIN, respectively. The overall IgG reduction over a complete treatment block was 68%–93% with Immunosorba and 62%–90% with GLOBAFFIN depending on the duration of the overall treatment. After termination of the immunoadsorption therapy, an improvement of clinical status was observed in 63.0%, stabilization of symptoms in 29.6%, and a deterioration in 4.9% of patients. Changes in fibrinogen, thrombocytes, and albumin were mostly classified as noncritical. Overall, the treatments were well tolerated. Immunoadsorption in routine clinical practice with both GLOBAFFIN and Immunosorba has been safely performed, was well tolerated by patients, and effective in lowering immunoglobulins with an improvement or maintenance of clinical status, thus represents an additional therapeutic option for therapy refractory immune disorders.

Therapeutic Plasma Exchange in the Critically Ill Patient: Technology and Indications

Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is frequently the most common Apheresis Medicine technique used for extracorporeal therapy of a wide variety of renal, neurological, hematological, and other clinical indications. Many of these clinical indications require intensive care during critical illness. Conventional TPE uses one of two main technical methods to achieve the goal of removing known disease mediators from the plasma: using centrifugal forces to separate and remove components of blood, or a membrane filtration method that separates plasma from the cellular components of blood. The following review discusses the basic principles of TPE, the technological aspects, and relevant clinical scenarios encountered in the intensive care unit, including relevant guidelines and recommendations from the American Society for Apheresis.

Protein A Immunoadsorption Relieves Autoimmune Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein Astrocytopathy after Unsuccessful Methylprednisolone Treatment

BACKGROUND

Autoimmune glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) astrocytopathy (GFAP-A) is a recently defined autoimmune inflammatory disease of the central nervous system in which GFAP IgG is present in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Its primary clinical manifestation is meningoencephalitis, and it usually responds well to corticosteroids. Herein, we report a case of a patient with GFAP-A with initial symptoms of psychological and cognitive impairment, which did not respond to high-dose methylprednisolone therapy but was successfully treated with protein A immunoadsorption (PAIA) therapy.

METHODS

GFAP IgG was detected by indirect immunofluorescence assay. The patient's data were analyzed retrospectively.

RESULTS

A 48-year-old man presented with anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, tremor, gait disturbance, and fecal and urine incontinence. Autoimmune GFAP-A was diagnosed based on the following: (1) T2-weighted and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery MRI findings of hypersensitive lesions in the subcortical and deep white matter of the brain, with multiple longitudinally extensive lesions in the cervical and chest regions of the spinal cord, and (2) high levels of GFAP IgG in the CSF. Clinical symptoms and abnormalities detected on neuroimaging worsened after administration of high-dose intravenous methylprednisolone (IVMP) and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) but improved significantly after PAIA therapy.

CONCLUSION

Psychological impairment can be the first sign of autoimmune GFAP-A. PAIA might be an effective treatment for patients with GFAP-A who respond poorly to conventional IVMP and IVIG therapy.

Apheresis in Autoimmune Encephalitis and Autoimmune Dementia

Autoimmune encephalitis (AE) is a rapidly progressive inflammatory neurological disease. Underlying autoantibodies can bind to neuronal surfaces and synaptic proteins resulting in psychiatric symptoms, focal neurological signs, autonomic dysfunction and cognitive decline. Early and effective treatment is mandatory to reduce clinical symptoms and to achieve remission. Therapeutic apheresis, involving both plasma exchange (PE) and immunoadsorption (IA), can rapidly remove pathogenic antibodies from the circulation, thus representing an important first-line treatment in AE patients. We here review the most relevant studies regarding therapeutic apheresis in AE, summarizing the outcome for patients and the expanding clinical spectrum of treatment-responsive clinical conditions. For example, patients with slowly progressing cognitive impairment suggesting a neurodegenerative dementia can have underlying autoantibodies and improve with therapeutic apheresis. Findings are encouraging and have led to the first ongoing clinical studies assessing the therapeutic effect of IA in patients with anti-neuronal autoantibodies and the clinical presentation of dementia. Therapeutic apheresis is an established and well tolerated option for first-line therapy in AE and, potentially, other antibody-mediated central nervous system diseases.

Guidelines on the Use of Therapeutic Apheresis in Clinical Practice - Evidence-Based Approach from the Writing Committee of the American Society for Apheresis: The Eighth Special Issue

The American Society for Apheresis (ASFA) Journal of Clinical Apheresis (JCA) Special Issue Writing Committee is charged with reviewing, updating and categorizing indications for the evidence-based use of therapeutic apheresis (TA) in human disease. Since the 2007 JCA Special Issue (Fourth Edition), the committee has incorporated systematic review and evidence-based approaches in the grading and categorization of apheresis indications. This Eighth Edition of the JCA Special Issue continues to maintain this methodology and rigor in order to make recommendations on the use of apheresis in a wide variety of diseases/conditions. The JCA Eighth Edition, like its predecessor, continues to apply the category and grading system definitions in fact sheets. The general layout and concept of a fact sheet that was introduced in the Fourth Edition, has largely been maintained in this edition. Each fact sheet succinctly summarizes the evidence for the use of TA in a specific disease entity or medical condition. The Eighth Edition comprises 84 fact sheets for relevant diseases and medical conditions, with 157 graded and categorized indications and/or TA modalities. The Eighth Edition of the JCA Special Issue seeks to continue to serve as a key resource that guides the utilization of TA in the treatment of human disease.

Clinical Characteristics and Short-Term Prognosis of Autoimmune Encephalitis: A Single-Center Cohort Study in Changsha, China

Background and Purpose: The incidence and prevalence of autoimmune encephalitis is gradually increasing. This retrospective observational study primarily aimed to analyze the clinical characteristics of autoimmune encephalitis patients in the Second Xiangya Hospital and report patient prognoses after immunotherapy. Methods: The clinical data of 86 patients who were diagnosed with autoimmune encephalitis from October 2014 to September 2018 were collected, and their corresponding clinical characteristics, laboratory examination, treatment, and outcome data analyzed. Results: In our study, 72 patients (83.7%) were positive for anti-NMDAR (N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor) antibody; 5 patients (6%) for anti-GABABR (γ-aminobutyric acid receptor-A); 4 patients (4.7%) for anti-LGI1 (leucine-rich, glioma inactivated 1); 3 patients (3.5%) for anti-Caspr2 (contactin-associated protein-like 2) (1 patient was positive for both anti-LGI1 and anti-Caspr2 antibodies); and 3 patients (3.5%) for onconeural antibodies. Among the 86 patients diagnosed as having autoimmune encephalitis, 50% showed acute disease onset (≤2 weeks). The most common inducing factor was fever or cold (17/86, 19.8%). The main clinical symptoms included, among others, psychiatric disturbances (82.5%), epilepsy (60.5%), autonomic dysfunction (58.1%), sleep disorders (45.3%), consciousness disorders (45.3%), and speech disorders (46.5%). No significant correlation between ICU admission rates and CSF or serum antibody scores was observed. However, CSF antibody scores of (+ + +) and (++) were associated with longer lengths of hospitalization (p < 0.05) and a higher CSF WBC count when compared with CSF antibody scores of (+) in patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis (p < 0.05). Additionally, there was no significant correlation between mRS score difference on admission and discharge (after immunotherapy) and age, sex, and choice of immune treatment, while immune therapy taken within 15 days from onset was more inclined to be associated with an mRS score difference ≥2 after immunotherapy in patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis (p = 0.006). Conclusions: Autoimmune encephalitis has an acute or sub-acute onset and presents with psychotic symptoms, epilepsy, and autonomic dysfunction. The sex ratio in anti-NMDAR encephalitis was nearly balanced. Infection was a major factor inducing anti-NMDAR encephalitis, and the CSF antibody scores could be helpful in determining its prognosis since these scores showed associations with hospitalization duration and CSF WBC counts.

Therapeutic apheresis in neurological, nephrological and gastrointestinal diseases

Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is a process in which plasma containing antibodies, immune complexes, inflammatory moderators, paraproteins and other toxins which are believed to be the cause of disease is removed from a patient. TPE is the first-line treatment (category I, level 1A) in all forms of Acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy disease (axonal, demyelinating and miller-fisher variant) as well as in acute myasthenic crisis, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy and Paraproteinemic neuropathies (category I, level 1B). Moreover, TPE in kidney diseases, for instance: desensitization in renal transplantation(ABO compatible) (living donor)and desensitization in deceased donor, desensitization in renal transplantation(ABO incompatible) (living donor), thrombotic microangiopathy complement Mediated (Factor H autoantibodies), Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis(recurrent in transplanted kidney), ANCA-associated rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis(Dialysis dependence, DAH), Anti-Glomerular basement membrane disease Goodpasture's syndrome)(DAH,Dialysis-independence,) has been utilized as an initial treatment. (category I) TPE has been used as the key therapeutic modality to reduce anti-A or anti-B antibody titers in the liver peri-transplant period with the goal of preventing rejection and facilitating graft survival. Also, plasma exchange is the first-line therapy in Wilson's disease (category I, level1C).

Typical clinical and imaging manifestations of encephalitis with anti-γ-aminobutyric acid B receptor antibodies: clinical experience and a literature review

OBJECTIVE

To explore the clinical, imaging, and electroencephalogram (EEG) findings, as well as the treatment and prognosis of five patients with anti-γ-aminobutyric acid B receptor (GABA_BR) encephalitis and review the current literature to gain a deeper understanding and improve the clinical diagnostic ability of the disease.

METHODS

Clinical data such as blood examination, imaging, computed tomography (CT), EEG, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings from five patients with anti-GABA_BR encephalitis were retrospectively analyzed.

RESULTS

Based on the imaging data, autoimmune encephalitis with anti-GABA_BR antibodies displayed subacute onset of episodic memory loss, seizures, and confusion, in addition to signal changes in the medial temporal lobe and/or hippocampus. Anti-GABA_BR antibodies were found in blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in all five patients, although the CSF leukocyte count and the levels of protein, sugar, and chloride showed no obvious abnormalities. On MRI, only two patients presented with abnormal signals in the medial temporal lobe and/or hippocampus. The EEG showed a slow wave rhythm in all five patients. After treatment with methylprednisolone pulse therapy combined with antiepileptic treatment, all five patients recovered well, without any complications.

CONCLUSIONS

Autoimmune encephalitis with anti-GABA_BR antibodies may be a severe and refractory disease. Anti-GABA_BR antibodies tested in CSF and serum play a crucial role in the definitive diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune encephalitis. Early treatment is of vital importance to avoid serious complications and neurological sequelae.

Systematic Review: Syndromes, Early Diagnosis, and Treatment in Autoimmune Encephalitis

In recent years, new antibodies have been discovered which mediate autoimmune encephalitis. This immunological response can be triggered by an infection or a tumor. Classical onconeuronal antibodies are directed against intracellular neuronal agents but recently, a novel group of antibodies to neuronal cell-surface and synaptic antigens associated with different CNS-syndromes, has been discovered. Interestingly, the syndromes in this group can be successfully treated with immunotherapy and frequently do not have underlying tumors. The aim of this review is to describe the current state of knowledge about autoimmune encephalitis, in order to provide clinicians with a concise, up-to-date overview. Thus, a comprehensive literature search was performed in medical databases. The literature was carefully studied and new findings focusing on the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment were summarized and interpreted. Even though it might be challenging in some cases, the awareness of certain symptom constellations and demographic information, in combination with laboratory- and MRI-results, allows clinicians to make the diagnosis of probable autoimmune encephalitis at an early stage. Treatment can therefore be initiated faster, which significantly improves the outcome. Further investigations could define the underlying pathogenic mechanisms. Randomized controlled trials, paired with increasing clinical experience, will be necessary to improve the identification of affected patients, treatment strategies, and outcomes in the years to come.