Immunocytometric analysis of oral pemphigus vulgaris patients after treatment with rituximab as adjuvant

Fortuna, G., Calabria, E., Aria, M., Giudice, A. and Mignogna, M. D. (2021) Immunocytometric analysis of oral pemphigus vulgaris patients after treatment with rituximab as adjuvant. Biomolecules, 11(11), 1634. (doi: 10.3390/biom11111634) (PMID:34827631) (PMCID:PMC8615967)

Abstract

Background: B-cell depletion therapy was demonstrated to be a valid and safe alternative as an adjuvant in oral-pharyngeal pemphigus vulgaris (OPV) patients. We aimed to assess its effects on anti-desmoglein (Dsg) 1 and 3 and leukocytes subsets profile in these patients’ population. Methods and Materials: We evaluated the immunologic profile of 10 OPV patients treated with RTX as adjuvant by using the ELISA testing for anti-Dsg-1 and -3 titers and the immunophenotyping for B and T-cell lymphocyte subpopulations and compared them with the PDAI score for clinical remission. Results: A significant difference in medians between baseline, end of RTX therapy, and 6 months after RTX therapy was observed in Dsg-3 titer (p 0.001), in the CD8 (p = 0.009), and CD20 counts (p 0.001). Multiple comparisons after Bonferroni adjustment confirmed such significant differences mainly between baseline and the end of RTX therapy and baseline and 6 months after RTX therapy. Only the anti-Dsg-3 titer at the end of RTX therapy demonstrated a slight positive correlation with the PDAI score at baseline (p = 0.046, r = 0.652). Conclusions: B-cell depletion adjuvant therapy in OPV patients demonstrated a significant impact on anti-Dsg-3 titer and B and T-cell lymphocyte subpopulations profile.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Rituximab, remission, oral pemphigus vulgaris, disease severity, OPV, desmoglein.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Fortuna, Dr Giulio

Creator Roles

Fortuna, G.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Resources, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration

• Authors: Fortuna, G., Calabria, E., Aria, M., Giudice, A., and Mignogna, M. D.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Medicine, Dentistry & Nursing > Dental School
• Journal Name: Biomolecules
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2218-273X
• ISSN (Online): 2218-273X
• Published Online: 04 November 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Biomolecules 11(11): 1634
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License