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Rituximab treatment in pemphigus vulgaris: effect on circulating Tregs

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Abstract

Rituximab (RTX) has been used successfully to treat refractory pemphigus. We aimed to assess the response of pemphigus vulgaris (PV) cases to RTX therapy and its effect on CD4+CD25+ (T regulatory) cells level. Sixteen PV patients were included in this study, each received one cycle of two RTX infusions (1000 mg on days 1 and 15). Five PV patients served as controls. All cases were on prednisolone ± adjuvant therapy. Pemphigus disease area index (PDAI), autoimmune bullous skin intensity score (ABSIS), anti-desmoglein antibodies, CD4, CD8, CD20 and CD4+CD25+ levels were assessed at baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months after therapy. Fourteen patients were followed up for a mean duration of 17 while two were lost to follow up 6 months after RTX therapy. A significant decrease in PDAI, ABSIS, Dsg3 (p < 0.0001) was found. The depletion of B cells lasted for 12 months in 11 (69%) patients and for 24 months in 3 (21.4%) patients. There was significant decrease in CD20+ and CD4+CD25+ cells after 12 months of RTX, p values were 0.005 and 0.02, respectively. While no similar change in CD8 and CD4 was found (p = 0.2 for both), no significant change of CD20 and CD4+CD25+ cells were detected in the control group. In conclusion RTX is safe and effective as an adjuvant therapy in refractory cases of PV. In addition to B cell depletion a significant reduction of T regulatory cells occurs in treated cases which may be due to increased skin homing of these cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine Cairo University, Kasr Al Ainy Hospital, Al-Manial, Cairo, 11956, Egypt

    Bakr El-Zawahry, Dalia Bassiouny, Rehab Hegazy, Heba Gawdat, Suzan Shalaby & Marwah Adly Saleh

  2. Clinical Pathology Faculty of Medicine Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

    Mervat Khorshied

Authors
  1. Bakr El-Zawahry
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  2. Dalia Bassiouny
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  3. Rehab Hegazy
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  4. Heba Gawdat
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  5. Suzan Shalaby
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  6. Mervat Khorshied
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  7. Marwah Adly Saleh
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Correspondence to Marwah Adly Saleh.

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El-Zawahry, B., Bassiouny, D., Hegazy, R. et al. Rituximab treatment in pemphigus vulgaris: effect on circulating Tregs. Arch Dermatol Res 309, 551–556 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-017-1754-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-017-1754-z

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