Dose escalation of adalimumab as a strategy to overcome anti-drug antibodies:A case report of infantile-onset inflammatory bowel disease

BACKGROUND Treatment of infantile-onset inflammatory bowel disease(IO-IBD)is often challenging due to its aggressive disease course and failure of standard therapies with a need for biologics.Secondary loss of response is frequently caused by the production of anti-drug antibodies,a well-known problem in IBD patients on biologic treatment.We present a case of IO-IBD treated with therapeutic drug monitoring(TDM)-guided high-dose anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy,in which dose escalation monitoring was used as a strategy to overcome anti-drug antibodies.CASE SUMMARY A 5-mo-old boy presented with a history of persistent hematochezia from the 10th d of life,as well as relapsing perianal abscess and growth failure.Hypoalbuminemia,anemia,and elevated inflammatory markers were also present.Endoscopic assessment revealed skip lesions with deep colic ulcerations,inflammatory anal sub-stenosis,and deep fissures with persistent abscess.A diagnosis of IO-IBD Crohn-like was made.The patient was initially treated with oral steroids and fistulotomy.After the perianal abscess healed,adalimumab(ADA)was administered with concomitant gradual tapering of steroids.Clinical and biochemical steroid-free remission was achieved with good trough levels.After 3 mo,antibodies to ADA(ATA)were found with undetectable trough levels;therefore,we optimized the therapy schedule,first administering 10 mg weekly and subsequently up to 20 mg weekly(2.8 mg/kg/dose).After 2 mo of high-dose treatment,ATA disappeared,with concomitant high trough levels and stable clinical and biochemical remission of the disease.CONCLUSION TDM-guided high-dose ADA treatment as a monotherapy overcame ATA production.This strategy could be a good alternative to combination therapy,especially in very young patients.

Endothelial impairment evaluation by peripheral arterial tonometry in pediatric endocrinopathies:A narrative review

Endothelial dysfunction(ED)is characterized by an imbalance between vasodilator and vasoconstriction agents.Several pathological conditions clinically diagnosed in childhood and adolescence are characterized by ED and increased risk for early development of microangiopathic and macroangiopathic impairment,in particular type 1 diabetes mellitus(T1DM),T2DM,obesity,metabolic syndromeand pituitary dysfunction associated to various endocrinopathies.More recently insulin resistance following chemotherapy or radiotherapy for tumors,bone marrow transplantation for hematological malignancies(i.e.,cancer survivors),or immunosuppressive treatment for solid organ transplantation has been observed.Assessment of ED by means of non-invasive techniques is the gold standard for early ED detection before clinical manifestation.It is aimed to recognize patients at risk and to avoid the development and progression of more serious illnesses.Reactive hyperemia-peripheral artery tonometry is a noninvasive technique to assess peripheral endothelial function by measuring modifications in digital pulse volume during reactive hyperemia,and represents a non-invasive,reproducible and operator-independent tool able to detect precocious ED.This narrative review aimed to provide an overview of the most important papers regarding ED detection by EndoPat 2000 in children and adolescents with different endocrine diseases.A comprehensive search of English language articles was performed in the MEDLINE database without using other search filters except the publication interval between 2005 and 2020.