VZV-specific T-cell levels in patients with rheumatic diseases are reduced and differentially influenced by antirheumatic drugs

Varicella zoster virus (VZV)-specific cellular immunity is essential for viral control, and the incidence of VZV reactivation is increased in patients with rheumatic diseases. Because knowledge of the influence of antirheumatic drugs on specific cellular immunity is limited, we analyzed VZV-specific...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Arthritis research & therapy 2018-11, Vol.20 (1), p.252-252, Article 252
Main Authors: Schub, David, Assmann, Gunter, Sester, Urban, Sester, Martina, Schmidt, Tina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antigens
Antirheumatic medication
Arthritis
Autoimmune diseases
bDMARDs
Care and treatment
Chicken pox
Cytokines
Cytotoxicity
Development and progression
Drugs
Health aspects
Health risk assessment
Immune response
Lupus
Lymphocytes
Observations
Rheumatic diseases
Rheumatic patients
Rheumatoid arthritis
Systematic review
T cells
TNF inhibitors
Tumor necrosis factor-TNF
Varicella zoster virus
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Summary:Varicella zoster virus (VZV)-specific cellular immunity is essential for viral control, and the incidence of VZV reactivation is increased in patients with rheumatic diseases. Because knowledge of the influence of antirheumatic drugs on specific cellular immunity is limited, we analyzed VZV-specific T cells in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and seronegative spondylarthritis (SpA), and we assessed how their levels and functionality were impacted by disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). A polyclonal stimulation was carried out to analyze effects on general effector T cells. CD4 T cells in 98 blood samples of patients with RA (n = 78) or SpA (n = 20) were quantified by flow cytometry after stimulation with VZV antigen and the polyclonal stimulus Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin B (SEB), and they were characterized for expression of cytokines (interferon-γ, tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-α, interleukin [IL]-2) and markers for activation (CD69), differentiation (CD127), or functional anergy programmed death 1 molecule [PD-1], cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 [CTLA-4]. Results of patients with RA were stratified into subgroups receiving different antirheumatic drugs and compared with samples of 39 healthy control subjects. Moreover, direct effects of biological DMARDs on cytokine expression and proliferation of specific T cells were analyzed in vitro. Unlike patients with SpA, patients with RA showed significantly lower percentages of VZV-specific CD4 T cells (median 0.03%, IQR 0.05%) than control subjects (median 0.09%, IQR 0.16%; p 
ISSN:1478-6362
1478-6354
1478-6362
DOI:10.1186/s13075-018-1742-5