Adalimumab

Adalimumab (ADA) has been shown to be an effective treatment for Behçet's disease (BD)-related uveitis. We aimed at evaluating the cumulative retention rate of ADA during a 48-month follow-up period in patients with BD-related uveitis, the impact of a concomitant use of disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) on ADA retention rate, and differences according to the various lines of biologic therapy (ie, first- vs second-line or more). Predictive factors of response to ADA were also investigated. METHODS: We enrolled patients diagnosed with BD-related uveitis and treated with ADA between January 2009 and December 2016. Cumulative survival rates were studied using the Kaplan-Meier plot, while the log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test was used to compare survival curves. Statistical analysis was performed to identify differences according to the response to ADA. RESULTS: 54 consecutive patients (82 eyes) were eligible for analysis. The drug retention rate at 12- and 48-month follow-up was 76.9% and 63.5%, respectively. No statistically significant differences were identified according to the use of concomitant DMARDs (p=0.27) and to the different lines of ADA treatment (p=0.37). No significant differences were found between patients continuing and discontinuing ADA in terms of age (p=0.24), age at BD onset (p=0.81), age at uveitis onset (p=0.56), overall BD duration (p=0.055), uveitis duration (p=0.46), human leucocyte antigen-B51 positivity (p=0.51), and gender (p=0.47). CONCLUSIONS: ADA retention rate in BD-related uveitis is excellent and is not affected by the concomitant use of DMARDs or by the different lines of biological therapy. Negative prognostic factors for BD uveitis do not impact ADA efficacy ¹⁾.

Lagarde et al report an open-label study evaluating the efficacy and the safety of anti-TNF-α therapy (adalimumab) in 11 patients with Rasmussen's encephalitis RE. The primary outcome criterion was the decrease of seizure frequency. The secondary outcome criteria were neurologic and cognitive outcomes and existence of side effects.

Adalimumab was introduced with a median delay of 31 months after seizure onset (range 1 month to 16 years), and follow-up was for a median period of 18 months (range 9-54 months). There was a significant seizure frequency decrease after adalimumab administration (from a median of 360 to a median of 32 seizures per quarter, p ≤ 0.01). Statistical analysis showed that adalimumab had a significant intrinsic effect (p < 0.005) independent from disease fluctuations. Five patients (45%) were found to have sustained improvement over consecutive quarters in seizure frequency (decrease of 50%) on adalimumab. Three of these five patients also had no further neurocognitive deterioration. Adalimumab was well tolerated.

The study reports efficacy of adalimumab in terms of seizure frequency control. In addition, stabilization of functional decline occurred in three patients. This efficacy might be particularly relevant for atypical slowly progressive forms of RE, in which hemispherotomy is not clearly indicated. Due to our study limitations, further studies are mandatory to confirm these preliminary results ²⁾.

Adalimumab-induced aseptic meningitis in a patient with Rheumatoid Arthritis ³⁾.