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Objectives Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) is a chronic relapsing systemic autoimmune vasculitis. Current treatment of GPA is unsatisfactory, as it relies on strong immunosuppressive regimens, with either CYC or rituximab, which reduce the immunogenicity of several vaccines and are risk factors for a severe form of COVID-19. This emphasizes the need to identify new drug targets and to develop treatment strategies with less harmful side effects. Since CD4+ effector memory T cells (TEM) play a key role in the pathogenesis of GPA, we aimed in this study to modulate CD4+TEM cell activity via Kv1.3 blockade using the specific peptide inhibiter, ShK-186. Methods Peripheral blood samples from 27 patients with GPA in remission and 16 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs) were pre-incubated in vitro in the presence or absence of ShK-186, followed by stimulation with phorbol myristate acetate, calcium ionophore and brefeldin-A. The effect of ShK-186 on the cytokine production (IFNγ, TNFα, IL-4, IL-17, IL-21) within total and subsets of CD4+ T helper (CD4+TH) cells were assessed using flow cytometry. Results ShK-186 reduced the expression level of IFNγ, TNFα, IL-4, IL-17 and IL-21 in CD4+TH cells from patients with GPA in vitro. Further analysis performed on sorted CD4+T cell subsets, revealed that ShK-186 predominantly inhibited the cytokine production of CD4+TEM cells. ShK-186 treatment reduced the production of the pro-inflammatory cytokines to the level seen in CD4+ TH cells from HCs. Conclusions Modulation of cellular effector function by ShK-186 may constitute a novel treatment strategy for GPA with high specificity and less harmful side effects.

A key challenge in psoriasis therapy is the tendency for lesions to recur in previously affected anatomical locations after treatment discontinuation following lesion resolution. Available evidence supports the concept of a localized immunological 'memory' that persists in resolved skin after complete disappearance of visible inflammation, as well as the role of a specific subpopulation of T cells characterized by the dermotropic CCR4

Objective To identify novel serum proteins involved in the pathogenesis of PsA as compared with healthy controls, psoriasis (Pso) and AS, and to explore which proteins best correlated to major clinical features of the disease. Methods A high-throughput serum biomarker platform (Olink) was used to assess the level of 951 unique proteins in serum of patients with PsA (n = 20), Pso (n = 18) and AS (n = 19), as well as healthy controls (HC, n = 20). Pso and PsA were matched for Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) and other clinical parameters. Results We found 68 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in PsA as compared with HC. Of those DEPs, 48 proteins (71%) were also dysregulated in Pso and/or AS. Strikingly, there were no DEPs when comparing PsA with Pso directly. On the contrary, hierarchical cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling revealed that HC clustered distinctly from all patients, and that PsA and Pso grouped together. The number of swollen joints had the strongest positive correlation to ICAM-1 (r = 0.81, P Conclusion PsA and Pso patients share a serum proteomic signature, which supports the concept of a single psoriatic spectrum of disease. Future studies should target skin and synovial tissues to uncover differences in local factors driving arthritis development in Pso.

Guselkumab was the first monoclonal antibody targeting the p19 subunit of IL-23 (IL-23p19) to be approved for the treatment of psoriasis. The registrational trials VOYAGE 1 and 2 established the efficacy and safety profile of guselkumab to Week 48 and demonstrated the superiority of guselkumab over placebo and adalimumab. A 5-year, open-label extension phase of both trials is currently ongoing. The poster and oral presentations reviewed here represent the latest data to emerge from the guselkumab clinical trial programme in psoriasis, as presented at the 28th European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress. The ECLIPSE study was the first head-to-head trial between guselkumab and the IL-17A inhibitor secukinumab. Both agents were the first to be approved in their respective class with proven efficacy for the treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis but, until now, no direct comparisons were available to assist clinical decision making. Together with efficacy and safety, ECLIPSE also sought to understand the differential impact of IL-23 versus IL-17 inhibition on the immune profile of psoriatic skin and effector cytokines, providing insights into their respective mechanisms of action. Switching focus to the long term, the latest 3-year safety data from VOYAGE 1 and 2 are now available to accompany the established 3-year efficacy profile, providing unprecedented insights into the long-term response and tolerability of guselkumab for the treatment of psoriasis.

BackgroundGuselkumab is an interleukin (IL)-23 pathway blocker with proven efficacy in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. Early intervention with guselkumab may result in changes to the clinical disease course versus later intervention.Methods and analysisHere we present the rationale and design of a phase 3b, randomised, double-blind, multicentre study (GUIDE), comparing treatment effects of guselkumab in patients with short (≤2 years) or longer (>2 years) duration of plaque-type psoriasis, measured from first appearance of psoriatic plaques. Participants achieving skin clearance (Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI)=0) by week 20 and maintaining complete clearance at week 28 visit (‘super-responders’ (SRe)) will be randomised to continue approved maintenance dosing every 8 weeks (q8w) versus an investigational maintenance dosing interval of 16 weeks (q16w) until week 68. Primary endpoint: proportion of participants in the q8w vs q16w arms with absolute PASI Ethics and disseminationApproval obtained from ethics committee Medical Council Hamburg, Germany (PVN5925). GUIDE is compliant with the Declaration of Helsinki.Trial registration numberRegistered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03818035). All primary endpoint results (prespecified analyses) will be submitted to peer-reviewed, international journals within 18 months after primary completion date.

Resumen La linfocitopenia T CD4 idiopática (LCI) es un síndrome clínico inusual que se caracteriza por un déficit de células T CD4+ circulantes en ausencia de infección por VIH u otra condición de inmunosupresión. Los pacientes con dicha enfermedad pueden presentarse asintomáticos o con infecciones oportunistas, las más frecuentes son por criptococo, micobacterias o virales como herpes zoster. Presentamos el caso de un hombre de 32 años, sin antecedentes, en quien se descartó infección por retrovirus, con recuento de linfocitos T CD4+ menor a 300 células/m3; se diagnosticó LCI posterior al diagnóstico de criptococomas cerebrales mediante hallazgos imagenológicos los cuales fueron congruentes con estudios microbiológicos. Summary Idiopathic CD4 T lymphocytopenia (ICL) is an unusual clinical syndrome characterized by a deficit of circulating CD4 + T cells in the absence of HIV infection or another immunosuppression condition. Patients with this disease may present asymptomatic or with opportunistic infections, the most frequent are cryptococcus, mycobacteria or viral such as herpes zoster. We present a case of a 32-year-old man with no prior disease, in whom retrovirus infection was discarded, with CD4 + T lymphocyte count less than 300 cells/m3; ICL was diagnosed after the diagnosis of brain cryptococomas by imaging findings which were consistent with microbiological studies.

Resumen La vasculitis leucocitoclastica es una patologìa que compromete los vasos pequeños y cuya causa predominantemente se ha descrito como idiopatica. Se presenta el caso de una mujer de 78 años hipertensa, diabética y con enfermedad renal crónica en estadio 5, que presentó lesiones limitadas a la piel posterior a la administración de oxacilina para manejo de bacteremia por SAMS. La presentación clínica se basó en purpuras palpables predominantemente en miembros inferiores y lesiones dolorosas coalescentes que formaban ampollas de contenido hemorrágico. Estas lesiones resolvieron gradualmente después del cambio de la terapia mencionada anteriormente. La biopsia fue compatible con vasculitis leucocitoclástica, con paraclínicos que descartaron causas infecciosas y autoinmunes. Abstract Leukocytoclastic vasculitis is a pathology that involves small vessels and whose cause has been predominantly described as idiopathic. The clinical case of a 78-year-old woman with hypertension, diabetic and chronic stage 5 kidney disease, who presented limited skin lesions after administration of oxacillin for management of bacteremia by MSSA. The clinical presentation consisted on palpable purpura predominantly in the lower limbs and painful coalescent lesions that formed blisters of hemorrhagic content. Lesions gradually resolved after the change of the therapy mentioned above. The biopsy was compatible with leukocytocastic vasculitis, with paraclinics who ruled out infectious and autoimmune causes.

Cellular sources of IL-23 and IL-17A driving skin inflammation in psoriasis remain unclear. Using high-dimensional unsupervised flow cytometry analysis, mononuclear phagocytes and T cells were examined in the same lesions of patients before and during guselkumab (IL-23p19 blocker) or secukinumab (IL-17A blocker) treatment. Among CD11c+HLA-DR+ mononuclear phagocytes, CD64brightCD163−CD14brightCD1c−CD1a‒ inflammatory monocyte‒like cells were the predominant IL-23–producing cells and, together with CD64−CD163−CD14−IL-23p19−TNF-α+ inflammatory dendritic cell‒like cells, were increased in lesional compared with those in nonlesional skin taken from the same patient. Within T cells, CD8+CD49a+ and/or CD103+ tissue-resident memory T cells, CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells, and CD4+CD49a−CD103− T cells were increased. Moreover, CD4+CD49a−CD103− T cells and the relatively rare CD8+ memory T cells equally contributed to IL-17A production. Both treatments decreased the frequencies of inflammatory monocyte‒like, inflammatory dendritic cell‒like, and CD4+CD49a−CD103− T cells. In contrast, guselkumab reduced memory T cells while maintaining regulatory T cells and vice versa for secukinumab. Neither drug modified the frequencies of IL-17A+IL‒17F+/– CD4+ or CD8+ T cells. This study reveals the identity of the major IL-23+ mononuclear phagocyte and IL-17+ T-cell subsets in psoriatic skin lesions and paves the way for a better understanding of the mode of action of drugs targeting the IL-23/IL-17A pathway in psoriasis.

Plaque psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory disease primarily affecting the skin, is thought to have a multifactorial etiology, including innate immune system dysregulation, environmental triggers, and genetic susceptibility. We sought to further understand the role of skin microbiota in psoriasis pathogenesis, as well as their response to therapy. We systematically analyzed dynamic microbiota colonizing psoriasis lesions and adjacent nonlesional skin in 114 patients prior to and during ustekinumab treatment in a phase 3b clinical trial. By sequencing the bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA gene from skin swab samples obtained at six anatomical sites, we identified minor, site-specific differences in microbial diversity and composition between pretreatment lesional and nonlesional skin. During therapy, microbial communities within lesional and nonlesional skin diverged, and body-site dispersion increased, reflecting microbial skin site-specificity. Microbiota demonstrated greater pretreatment heterogeneity in psoriatic lesions than in nonlesional skin, and variance increased as treatment progressed. Microbiota colonizing recurrent lesions did not overlap with pretreatment lesional microbiota, suggesting colonization patterns varied between initial and recurrent psoriatic lesions. While plaque psoriasis does not appear to be associated with specific microbes and/or microbial diversity, this large dataset provides insight into microbial variation associated with (i) disease in different body locations, (ii) initial versus recurrent lesions, and (iii) anti-IL12/23 therapy.

Streptococcus pneumoniae commonly resides asymptomatically in the nasopharyngeal (NP) cavity of healthy individuals but can cause life-threatening pulmonary and systemic infections, particularly in the elderly. NP colonization results in a robust immune response that protects against invasive infections. However, the duration, mechanism, and cellular component of such responses are poorly understood. In this study, we found that repeated NP exposure of mice to S. pneumoniae TIGR4 strain results in pneumococcal-specific Ab responses that protect against lethal lung challenge. Abs were necessary and sufficient for protection because Ab-deficient μMT mice did not develop postexposure protection, only becoming resistant to lung infection after transfer of immune sera from NP-exposed mice. T cells contributed to immunity at the time of NP exposure, but neither CD4+ nor CD8+ T cells were required. The protective activity was detectable 20 wk after exposure and was maintained in irradiated mice, suggesting involvement of long-lived Ab-secreting cells (ASC), which are radioresistant and secrete Abs for extended periods of time in the absence of T cells or persistent Ag. CD138+ bone marrow cells, likely corresponding to long-lived ASC, were sufficient to confer protection. NP exposure of aged mice failed to protect against subsequent lung infection despite eliciting a robust Ab response. Furthermore, transfer of CD138+ bone marrow cells or sera from NP-exposed old mice failed to protect naive young mice. These findings suggest that NP exposure elicits extended protection against pneumococcal lung infection by generating long-lived CD138+ ASC and that the protective efficacy of these responses declines with age.