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Publications (61)
Due to their suppressive capacity, regulatory T cells (Tregs) have attracted growing interest as an adoptive cellular therapy for the prevention of allograft rejection, but limited Treg recovery and lower quality of adult-derived Tregs could represent an obstacle to success. To address this challenge, we developed a new approach that provides large...
Multifactorial mechanisms leading to diminished platelet counts in immune thrombocytopaenia (ITP) might condition the ability of patients with ITP to respond to treatments. Examining their platelet and immune features, we aimed to detect singular characteristics of patients with ITP who do not respond to any treatment. We studied patients with chro...
Introduction: Mechanisms leading to diminished platelet counts in immune thrombocytopaenia (ITP) appear to be multifactorial: autoantibodies, autoreactive CD8+ cytotoxic T cells, enhanced apoptosis and loss of sialic acid which mediates platelet clearance through the Ashwell-Morell receptors present in hepatocytes. Differential involvement of each...
To identify features associated with long-term persistent remission in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients on tapered biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARD) (tap-bDMARD) therapy. We carried out a 40-month (m) extension follow-up study of 77 RA patients from a previous 12 m tap-bDMARD study. Disease activity was assessed at baselin...
Several genome-wide association studies have identified a polymorphism located 35 kb upstream of the coding region of HLA-C gene ( rs9264942 ; termed −35 C/T) as a host factor significantly associated with the control of HIV-1 viremia in untreated patients. The potential association of this host genetic polymorphism with the viral reservoirs has ne...
Objectives:
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between serum infliximab (IFX) levels and changes of RF and ACPA levels in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Methods:
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) [Promonitor® IFX R1 (version 2) (Progenika Biopharma, Spain)] were used to measure drug levels and antidrug-a...
Background
Suppurative Hidradenitis (SH) is an inflammatory skin disease which often responds poorly to treatment. It is a disorder of the apocrine glands (axillary, inguinal and anogenital regions) that can result in infection, inflamed nodules, cysts, abscesses and sinus tracts. There is a 1–4% incidence of SH in patients with spondyloarthropathi...
Background
The major SARD have an increased mortality compared to the general population. It is well known that the main causes of death in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) are infections (INF), cardiovascular events (CV), neoplasia (NEO) and disease activity. However, the compared mortality of Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (MCTD), Systemic Scl...
Background
Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (MCTD) is a systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease (SARD) characterized by clinical manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), systemic sclerosis (SSc) and polymyositis (PM) and the presence of anti-U1-RNP antibodies.
Objectives
To determine whether there are patients with symptoms of MCTD in th...
Background
Lung fibrosis (LF) is a type of interstitial disease that leads to lung scarring, respiratory failure and later on, death. There are 2 main types of LF: idiopathic and secondary; and the prognosis is very different. LF becomes relevant in connective tissue diseases (CTD) and some studies have suggested that there could be an association...
Background
The determination of fibromylagia (FM) in patients presenting diffuse, chronic arthritis is fraught. The Fibromyalgia Rapid Screening Tool (FiRST) is a validated questionnaire with high sensitivity and moderate specificity shown to be able to identify up to 89% of FM cases, even when accompanied by anxiety, depression or functional disab...
Objectives:
To evaluate biomechanical and ultrasound (US) abnormalities in SLE patients as compared with controls and to assess the relationship between these abnormalities and SLE activity.
Methods:
Fifty-four consecutive female patients with SLE with and without foot pain and 60 female controls (30 with foot pain and 30 without foot pain) were...
This cross-sectional observational study aimed to explore the relationship between B cell count and ultrasound (US)-detected synovitis, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with rituximab. Thirty-seven consecutive RA patients treated with RTX were recruited for the study. The patients underwent clinical [i.e., Disease Activity Score 28 joi...
Background
B-cell depletion therapy decreases autoantibodies formation as rheumatoid factor and anti–citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA). Other therapeutic targets (TT) such as anti-TNF (tumor necrosis factor), anti-IL-6R (interleukin-6 receptor) and anti-CTL4A (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4) modulate the B-cells proliferation/maturation and...
Background
Biologicals therapies have been used for the treatment of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) but only Belimumab has been approved by the European Medicines Agency. Abatacept (ABA), a T-cell co-stimulation blocker, has been proposed as an effective treatment for SLE due to its mechanism of action. Three randomised clinical trials have bee...
Background
Rituximab (RTX) is a chimeric monoclonal anti-CD20 antibody. Several studies have proved its safety when used in different autoimmune chronic rheumatic diseases (ACRD). However, the real conditions of daily practice are not comparable to the ideal frame of a clinical trial.
Objectives
The aim of this study is to describe the profile of...
Objectives:
To investigate the presence of biomechanical abnormalities and ultrasound (US)-detected inflammation and damage in low disease or remission status rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with foot complaints.
Methods:
We recruited 136 subjects with foot complaints. Sixty-two were biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug-treated RA pa...
The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which infliximab (IFX) serum levels impact disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.
In this cross sectional study, serum samples were taken prior to drug infusion from 60 RA patients who had been undergoing IFX therapy > 12 months as a first line of biological treatment. Patient IFX...
Infliximab (IFX) and adalimumab (ADL) drug levels and anti-drug antibodies (ADA) are assessed using a variety of techniques, therefore, results cannot accurately be compared for clinical purposes. The aim of this study was to test two infliximab (IFX) and adalimumab (ADL) ELISA versions, for drug levels and ADA, to see whether they yield similar re...
Although advances in biological medicine have seen significant progress in the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory disease, many patients do not experience a satisfactory response. Hence, there are two challenges facing the medical research community. The first is to continue development in the field of existing biological therapies, such as m...
Background A high prevalence of foot pain (70-90%) has been widely described in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (1-4). Foot inflammation in RA usually starts in the metarsophalangeal (MTP) joints, extends to other joints with consequent pain, deformities and functional impairment (5, 6). The foot disorders and complaints it might have their origins in in...
Background Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune inflammatory disease with wide ranging multi-systemic effects and clinical manifestations of fluctuating intensity and severity (1). This is characterized by dysfunction of T-cells and B-cell (BC) activation and an abnormal production of autoantibodies (2). Anomalous patterns in the exp...
Background Several studies have shown the relationship between anti-SSA-Ro/SSB-La antibodies and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), Sjögren Syndrome (SS) and other autoimmune diseases in adult population. However, the expression of these autoantibodies and clinical correlation in juvenile patients is poorly described.
Objectives To characterize th...
To investigate the predictive value of synovitis detected by Doppler US in relation to failed tapering of biologic therapy (BT) in RA patients in sustained clinical remission.
A total of 77 RA patients (52 women, 25 men) in sustained clinical remission, treated with a stable dosage of BT were prospectively recruited. BT was tapered according to an...
The primary objective of this study was to describe and compare clinical and musculoskeletal (MS) ultrasound (US) features between psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients treated with full and tapered dosage of biologic (b) disease-modified antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). The secondary objective was to compare clinical and MSUS features between PsA patien...
There are various immunosorbent assays which can be used to determine infliximab (IFX) levels. Results vary between assays complicating reliability in everyday clinical practice. The aim of this study was to determine whether quantitative or qualitative assay data prove more accurate in the assessment of infliximab levels in AS patients. We analyze...
Objectives:
The aim of this paper is to assess the usefulness of measuring serum levels of adalimumab (ADL) and anti-ADL antibodies in 57 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with ADL for at least 3 months in daily practice.
Methods:
All patients received concomitant disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD). Receiver-operator cha...
Objective:
The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of the pharmacokinetics of s.c. anti-TNF agents on the grade of US-detected synovitis in RA patients.
Methods:
Fifty RA patients were prospectively recruited from the Biologic Therapy Unit of our hospital. Inclusion criteria were being in treatment with s.c. anti-TNF agents and ha...
Background The assessment of biological drug levels and immunogenicity might be essential in terms of a more effective and rational use of biological therapies and it is dependent upon the establishment of efficient standardized assays or a consensus that could allow a direct comparison of drug levels and anti-drug antibodies (ADA) data with clinic...
Background Many patients with RA are well controlled on anti-TNF therapy, but up to 40% do not achieve or sustain an acceptable response. B cell depletion therapy based on rituximab (RTX) is then often used to try and induce clinical remission. There is no clear protocol for patients who subsequently fail to respond adequately to RTX or other biolo...
Background Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory disease which can result in invalidating deformities of the joints and spine at an early age. The introduction of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blocking agents has changed the treatment options in AS. Nevertheless, the reasons for lack or loss of response to infliximab (IFX) are unclear...
Background The predictive value of Rheumatoid Factor (RF) and antibodies to citrullinated peptides (ACPA) in relation to the response to antagonist of the tumor necrosis factor (Anti-TNF) in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) has not been fully addressed. In addition, there are no studies on the effect of Anti-TNF on the levels of these antibo...
Background Anti-TNF drugs are administered either subcutaneously (SBC) or intravenously and this may determine their bioavailability. There are two major aspects regarding the SBC self-administration: the injection site and the injection technique. Thus, the appropriated patient training by a nurse is essential for appropriated self-administration...
Background The treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has improved in the last years because of both: an increased understanding of its pathogenesis and the use of biological therapies. It is well known that B cells play a pivotal role in the development of autoimmune processes mainly as a precursor of antibody-secreting cells and also as antigen-p...
B-cells play a cardinal role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as demonstrated by the effectiveness of B-cell depletion with rituximab (RTX). In the current cross-sectional study, we assessed the phenotypical changes of B-cell subsets in RA patients treated with different anti-cytokine therapeutic targets, anti-TNF: infliximab (IFX),...
In patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) the reasons for failure or loss of response to infliximab (IFX) are controversial, so far both IFX serum levels and the presence of anti-IFX antibodies (HACA) have been associated with these events. In this study we aimed to determine sensitivity and specificity of one available commercial ELISA assay cons...
Background In the management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, the election of the drug and dosage needs to be personalized considering each particular subject conditions.
Objectives Assessclinical characteristics, disease activity and concomitant treatment in patients with RA treated with diverse anti-TNF dosage strategies. Estimate annual as...
Background:
Rapid screening for the detection of HLA-B*57:01 in the prevention of abacavir hypersensitivity in HIV-1-infected patients is a hallmark for clinical services.
Objective:
The aim of this work was to analyze the utility of flow cytometry with a new FITC-conjugated B-17 monoclonal antibody (mAb3E12) for HLA-B*57:01 screening in a Spani...
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic disease that leads to increases in health system economic burden through direct and indirect costs, including chronic treatment, reduced productivity and premature mortality. Anti-TNF agents have represented a major advance in the treatment of RA. The most commonly used (adalimumab, etanercept and inf...
Objectives
Methods Serum levels of ADA and anti-ADA-Abs (ELISA kit. Promonitor®-ADA. Proteomika, Derio. Vizcaya. Spain) were analyzed in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) receiving ADA >6 months. Cut-off level for serum Abs anti-ADA was >32 U/mL and for serum level of ADA <0.004 mg/L. Clinical characteristics, clinical activity index (DAS in...
Background Adalimumab (ADA) is commonly used in rheumatic diseases. Some patients do not respond or present a loss of response in the time. Till now, the decision in these cases was based only on the clinical evolution of the patient.
For two years it is commercialized in Spain an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for quantification of the...
To investigate the sensitivity for detecting subclinical synovitis of different reduced joint ultrasound (US) assessment models as compared with a comprehensive US assessment in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in clinical remission.
Sixty-seven RA patients (50 women, 17 men) in clinical remission as judged by their consultant rheumatologist and...
Objectives To evaluate BBR (BAFF-R, TACI and BCMA) expression on B-cells in response to the treatment with the anti-TNF-alpha agent infliximab in RA patients
Methods We assessed naïve and memory B-cells expressing BBR in peripheral blood in 23 patients with RA on infliximab treatment: 12 in no-remission (DAS28>3.2), 11 in remission (DAS28<2.6) and...
Studies in primary HIV-1 infection and advanced HIV-1 disease have demonstrated that HIV-1 DNA associated with peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC HIV-1 DNA) has predictive value for disease progression.
To analyse in asymptomatic HIV-1 chronic infection the predictive value of PBMC HIV-1 DNA for virological failure.
In 115 individuals who had...
