Pediatric neuro-Behçet's disease responsive to adalimumab

Treatment with Biologic Drugs in Pediatric Behçet's Disease: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Published Data

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Behçet's disease (BD) is a variable vessel vasculitis. Biologic drugs are increasingly used in the treatment of BD. We aimed to analyze biologic drug use in the treatment of pediatric BD.

METHODS

MEDLINE/PubMed and Scopus databases were searched from the inception of these databases until 15 November 2022, according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Only reports presenting data of pediatric patients with BD (BD diagnosis < 18 years of age) treated with biologic drugs were included. The demographic features, clinical characteristics, and data on treatment were extracted from the included papers.

RESULTS

We included 87 articles including 187 pediatric patients with BD treated with biologic drugs (215 biologic treatments). Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α inhibitors (176 treatments) were the most frequently used biologic drugs followed by interferons (21 treatments). Other reported biologic treatments were anti-interleukin-1 agents (n = 11), tocilizumab (n = 4), daclizumab (n = 2), and rituximab (n = 1). The most common indication for biologic drug use was ocular involvement (93 treatments) followed by multisystem active disease (29 treatments). Monoclonal TNF-α inhibitors, adalimumab and infliximab, were preferred over etanercept in ocular and gastrointestinal BD. The improvement rates with any TNF-α inhibitor, adalimumab, infliximab, etanercept, and interferons were 78.5%, 86.1%, 63.4%, 87.5%, and 70%; respectively. The organ-specific improvement rate with TNF-α inhibitors was 76.7% and 70% for ocular and gastrointestinal system involvement. Adverse events have been reported for TNF-α inhibitors, interferons, and rituximab. Six of these were severe [TNF-α inhibitors (n = 4); interferons (n = 2)].

CONCLUSIONS

The presented systematic literature search revealed that TNF-α inhibitors followed by interferons were the most frequently used biologic drugs in pediatric BD. Both group of biologic treatments appeared to be effective and have an acceptable safety profile in pediatric BD. However, controlled studies are required for analyzing indications for biologic treatments in pediatric BD.

Neurological involvement by Behçet's syndrome: clinical features, diagnosis, treatment and outcome

Neurological involvement in Behçet's syndrome arises predominately through an inflammatory meningoencephalitis characterised by perivenular inflammation due to activation of Th-17 immunological pathways. The brainstem is involved in 50% of cases, the diencephalon and other areas of the brain in 30%, and the spinal cord in 10%. Movement disorders and epilepsy may occur. Psychiatric syndromes may arise with brain and brainstem involvement, and cognitive disorders relate to the brain disease, to circulating inflammatory factors, and to fatigue and despondency. Eighty per cent of cases begin with a relapsing disease course, of whom 70% have only one attack, and 30% have a progressive disease course either from onset or following an initially relapsing course. Venous thrombosis leading to intracranial hypertension and cerebral venous infarction is less common and caused by inflammation in affected veins and a circulating prothrombotic state. Arterial involvement is rare and relates to an arteritis affecting large-sized and medium-sized vessels within the brain leading to infarction, subarachnoid and parenchymal haemorrhage, aneurysm formation and arterial dissection. There is a newly recognised disorder of cerebral cortical hypoperfusion. Cranial neuropathy, peripheral neuropathy and myositis are rare. There has been significant progress in understanding the pathophysiology and treatment of the systemic disease, leading to improved outcomes, but there has been no randomised trial of treatment in the neurological disorder.

Therapeutic approach to central nervous system involvement of Behçet's disease

BACKGROUND

Neurologic involvement in Behçet's disease (BD) represents a major cause of disease morbidity and mortality. Early recognition and timely treatment represent crucial aspects that aim at preventing long-term disability. The absence of robust and evidence-based studies further complicates the management of neuro-BD (NBD). In this review we aim at collecting the best available evidence and suggest a treatment algorithm for an optimal and personalized management of NBD.

EVIDENCE ACQUISITION

PubMed (NLM) database for papers written in English language was used to retrieve relevant articles for this review.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

Neurologic involvement in BD is one of the most serious and challenging aspects to manage, particularly in its chronic progressive form. It is important to distinguish between acute and chronic progressive NBD, as treatment may vary considerably. Currently, no standardized treatment guidelines support physicians in the decision-making process that therefore relies on low-level evidence. High dose corticosteroids remain the cornerstone for managing acute phase both in the parenchymal and non-parenchymal involvement. Prevention of relapses and control of disease progression represent crucial goals for acute and chronic progressive NBD respectively. In this regard, mycophenolate mofetil and azathioprine are valuable options in the acute NBD. On the other hand, low weekly dose methotrexate has been suggested for chronic progressive NBD. Refractory cases or intolerant patients to conventional therapies may benefit from biologic agents, particularly infliximab. First-line infliximab may be preferred in severe patients with high risk of damage. Other agents including tocilizumab, interleukin-1 inhibitors, B-cell depletion therapy and to a lesser extent, interferon-α and intravenous immunoglobulins are potential options in severe and multidrug resistant cases. Due to multiple organ involvement in BD, long-term treatment should be determined by a multidisciplinary approach. Therefore, multicenter collaborations in the context of international registry-based projects could promote data sharing, standardization of more clinical outcomes and knowledge diffusion that hopefully may optimize therapy and personalize the management of patients with such a complex syndrome.

Clinical Manifestations and Management of Pediatric Behçet's Disease

Behçet's disease (BD) is a chronic, vasculitic disorder affecting all sizes of vessels. The disease rarely onsets at childhood and an early diagnosis is often challenging. Oral ulceration and fever of unknown cause are common initial manifestations that might confuse other inflammatory disorders. The clinical manifestation pattern in pediatric BD is heterogeneous and varies in different genders, ethnicities, and geographic regions. There are also some differences in clinical presentations and prognosis between pediatric and adult BD. The disease also affects children at an extremely young age with mostly benign outcomes compared with that in older children. A limited number of studies reported issues about pediatric BD, let alone studies of children's treatments. Currently, the recommendation of the treatment in pediatric BD is according to the guideline of adult BD. The heterogeneity of clinical features makes the treatment more complicated. The main goal of the treatment is to control the inflammatory process and prevent recurrences. We will discourse the definition, epidemiology, clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment of pediatric BD in this review.

Clinical manifestations and anti-TNF alpha therapy of juvenile Behçet's disease in Taiwan

Backgrounds

Behçet’s disease (BD) is a rare vasculitic disorder affecting all sizes of vessels. Among BD patients, 4 to 25% of patients with diagnosed age younger than 16 years old are defined as juvenile BD (JBD). This study aimed to evaluate the clinical manifestations and treatments of patients with JBD, with a particular focus on the effectiveness and safety of anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha therapy.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed data of all patients diagnosed with JBD at age of 16 years or younger in a tertiary hospital in Taiwan. The clinical manifestations, laboratory data, treatments, disease courses, and clinical outcomes were evaluated. The effectiveness of anti-TNF-alpha therapy was measured based on changes in Behçet’s Disease Current Activity Form (BDCAF) scores, prednisolone dosages and the immunosuppression load scores.

Results

Fifty-five patients were included in the study. The median age at disease onset was 11 years. The most common clinical presentation was recurrent oral aphthous ulcers (100%), followed by genital ulceration (69.1%), skin lesions (36.4%), gastrointestinal symptoms (29.1%), ocular involvement (27.3%), and arthralgia (27.3%). Ninety-one percent of the patients fulfilled the International Criteria for Behçet’s Disease, and 36.4% met the Paediatric Behçet’s Disease criteria. The most frequently used medications were prednisolone (74.5%) and colchicine (54.5%). Six patients with refractory or severe JBD received anti-TNF-alpha therapy. These patients were diagnosed at a younger age compared with those who did not receive anti-TNF-alpha therapy (7.5 vs 13 years; P = 0.012), the BDCAF scores reduced significantly at the 1st month, the 6th month and 1 year after the treatment. They did not use steroids after the first year of treatment, and, after treatment for 6 months, their immunosuppression load scores reduced significantly. Due to the limited case numbers, literature reviews of anti-TNF-alpha therapy for refractory JBD were conducted, which had a total 18 JBD patients receiving anti-TNF-alpha therapy, of which fifteen patients had favorable outcomes after treatment with minimal side effects.

Conclusions

Anti-TNF-alpha therapy may be necessary for JBD patients with refractory disease courses. Anti-TNF-alpha therapy was effective and safe in these patients, especially regarding its corticosteroid- and immunosuppressive drug-sparing effects.

Behçet's Disease and Nervous System Involvement

OPINION STATEMENT

Management of neuro-Behçet's disease can be divided into two stages: treatment of acute attacks and prevention of relapses. Treatment of acute attacks is accomplished by high-dose intravenous corticosteroids followed by maintenance treatment with oral steroids for 6-12 months depending on the type and severity of the neurological involvement. Relapses can be prevented by using immunosuppressants. Oral immunosuppressants such as azathioprine and mycophenolate are the most widely utilized agents for this purpose. Patients who are refractory or who cannot tolerate these medications can be managed by cyclophosphamide, interferon alpha, or anti-TNF-α monoclonal antibodies such as infliximab, etanercept, and adalimumab. Recent reports showed that newer agents such as tocilizumab, canakinumab, and anakinra, which exert their biological activity through IL-1 and IL-6 pathways, are also promising treatment alternatives for progressive or relapsing patients.

Adalimumab in the management of Behçet's disease

Behçet's disease (BD) is a relapsing, systemic, inflammatory disorder that affects various organ systems. Most of the manifestations of BD are self-limiting, but ocular attacks are an exception. Gastrointestinal tract, central nervous system, and cardiovascular system manifestations are relatively infrequent but may be resistant to conventional immunosuppressive treatment and therefore life-threatening. Tumor necrosis factor alpha antagonists are increasingly being used in patients whose BD is inadequately controlled by standard immunosuppressive regimens. Most of the current experience regarding the treatment of refractory BD involves the use of infliximab; however, adalimumab has also been successfully used in cases of BD refractory to both conventional therapy and infliximab. Compared with infliximab, adalimumab offers several other advantages, such as the ability to self-administer at home, better patient compliance, and an improved side effect profile. Here, we review clinical experience of the use of adalimumab to treat the serious manifestations of BD. Adalimumab is a promising drug for the treatment of BD, and its randomized, prospective study in a large number of patients is warranted to fully determine its efficacy in the refractory BD setting.

The development and assessment of biological treatments for children

The development of biological agents with specific immunological targets has revolutionized the treatment of a wide variety of paediatric diseases where traditional immunosuppressive agents have been partly ineffective or intolerable. The increasing requirement for pharmaceutical companies to undertake paediatric studies has provided impetus for studies of biologics in children. The assessment of biological agents in children to date has largely relied upon randomized controlled trials using a withdrawal design, rather than a parallel study design. This approach has been largely used due to ethical concerns, including use of placebo treatments in children with active chronic disease, and justified on the basis that treatments have usually already undergone robust assessment in related adult conditions. However, this study design limits the reliability of the data and can confuse the interpretation of safety results. Careful ongoing monitoring of safety and efficacy in real-world practice through national and international biologics registries and robust reporting systems is crucial. The most commonly used biological agents in children target tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1, interleukin-6 and cytotoxic lymphocyte-associated antigen-4. These agents are most frequently used in paediatric rheumatic diseases. This review discusses the development and assessment of biologics within paediatric rheumatology with reference to the lessons learned from use in other subspecialties.

Neuro-Behçet's disease in childhood: a focus on the neuro-ophthalmological features

Neuro-Behçet's disease (NBD) involves the central nervous system; peripheral nervous system involvement is not often reported. NBD is quite common in adult patients and occurs rarely during childhood and adolescence. Young patients may share symptoms and signs of NBD with other neuro-ophthalmological disorders (e.g. idiopathic intracranial hypertension); thus, making the differential diagnosis difficult. Neuroimaging is mandatory and necessary for a correct NBD diagnosis but in children radiological examinations are often difficult to perform without sedation. From 1971 to 2011, 130 patients aged ≤16 years have been reported with NBD, according to retrospective surveys, case series, and case reports. The origin of the reported cases met the well-known geographical distribution of Behçet's disease (BD); the mean age at presentation of neurological findings was 11.8 years, with male gender prevalence (ratio, 2.9:1). We considered in detail the neuro-ophthalmological features of the 53 cases whose neuroimaging alterations were described with an assigned radiological pattern of the disease (parenchymal: 14 cases, non-parechymal: 35 cases, and mixed: 4 cases). In 19/53 patients (36%), neuro-ophthalmological symptoms anticipated any pathognomonic sign for a BD diagnosis, or only occasional aphtae were recalled by the patients. Family history was positive in 17% of subjects. Headache was reported in 75% of the patients; in those presenting with cerebral vascular involvement, headache was combined to other symptoms of intracranial hypertension. Papilledema was the most frequently reported ophthalmological finding, followed by posterior uveitis. Treatment consisted of systemic steroids in 93% of patients, often combined with other immunosuppressive drugs (especially colchicine and azathioprine). Clinical recovery or improvement was documented in the large majority of patients. Nine subjects had definitive alterations, and one died. Based on our review and personal experience, a delayed diagnosis, and the consequently delayed immunosuppressive treatment, may favour permanent sequelae, in particular, optic atrophy.

A young girl with refractory intestinal Behçet's disease: a case report and review of literatures on pediatric cases who received an anti-tumor necrosis factor agent

Behçet's disease (BD) is a chronic, relapsing, multisystem inflammatory disorder classified as vasculitis and characterized by recurrent oral and genital ulcerations, uveitis, and protean clinical signs of skin, central nervous system, musculoskeletal, and gastrointestinal involvements. Among the protean manifestations due to BD, intestinal BD is often intractable, but effective treatment for intestinal BD has not been fully established. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α plays a central role in inflammation in BD patients; however, there are very few reports on the successful treatment of pediatric-onset cases of intestinal BD using anti-TNF-α agents. We report the case of a 6-year-old Japanese girl with refractory intestinal BD who was successfully treated with multidrug therapy including etanercept (ETN). Also, we performed a review of literatures on pediatric cases who received an anti-TNF-α agent. To our knowledge, this is the youngest patient with intestinal BD who was successfully treated using ETN. Although further studies are needed to determine the efficacy and safety of anti-TNF-α agents in the treatment for pediatric-onset BD, we believe that even in very young patients with refractory BD, an anti-TNF-α agent may be beneficial.

Recent understanding on diagnosis and management of central nervous system vasculitis in children

Central nervous system vasculitides in children may develop as a primary condition or secondary to an underlying systemic disease. Many vasculitides affect both adults and children, while some others occur almost exclusively in childhood. Patients usually present with systemic symptoms with single or multiorgan dysfunction. The involvement of central nervous system in childhood is not frequent and it occurs more often as a feature of subtypes like childhood polyarteritis nodosa, Kawasaki disease, Henoch Schönlein purpura, and Bechet disease. Primary angiitis of the central nervous system of childhood is a reversible cause of severe neurological impairment, including acute ischemic stroke, intractable seizures, and cognitive decline. The first line therapy of CNS vasculitides is mainly based on corticosteroids and immunosuppressor drugs. Other strategies include plasmapheresis, immunoglobulins, and biologic drugs. This paper discusses on current understanding of most frequent primary and secondary central nervous system vasculitides in children including a tailored-diagnostic approach and new evidence regarding treatment.

Role of adalimumab in the management of children and adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis and other rheumatic conditions

Treatment of children and adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis and other pediatric rheumatic diseases has evolved. Where once there was only a limited arsenal of medications, with significant side effects and inadequate efficacy, today, with an increased understanding of the pathogenesis of these diseases, there is a wider variety of more targeted and effective treatments. TNF-α is a cytokine involved in a number of inflammatory pathways in pediatric rheumatic diseases. The emergence of biologic modifiers that target TNF-α has been pivotal in providing the ability to deliver early and aggressive treatment. Adalimumab, a recombinant monoclonal antibody to TNF-α, is an important therapeutic option, which affords children and adolescents with chronic illnesses an improved quality of life.