Active clinical trials for "Giant Cell Arteritis"

Sirukumab is a human anti-IL-6 monoclonal antibody that selectively binds to the cytokine with high affinity that may have therapeutic benefit in the treatment of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) by interrupting multiple pathogenic pathways. Sirukumab inhibits IL-6-mediated signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) phosphorylation, resulting in the inhibition of the biological effect of IL-6. This study will evaluate the efficacy and safety of sirukumab to characterize the benefit-to-risk profile of sirukumab in the treatment of active PMR. The study will be conducted in 2 parts (Part A and Part B) and consists of the following phases: Screening phase, Part A: 52-week double-blind treatment phase, Part B: 52-week extension phase with no study drug administration and a 16-week follow-up phase if applicable. Approximately 150 subjects with a diagnosis of PMR and active disease within 6 weeks of baseline will be randomized into Part A, the 52-week double-blind treatment phase, to receive one of two doses of sirukumab or placebo, each in addition to a pre-specified prednisone taper. The efficacy and safety of sirukumab in sustaining remission will be assessed at Week 52. Subjects completing Part A of the study who are in clinical remission will be eligible to enter Part B, the 52-week extension phase, designed to investigate the long-term maintenance of remission and safety following cessation of sirukumab treatment and to assess long-term corticosteroid use. Subjects will need to have follow-up safety evaluations for at least 16 weeks after receiving the last dose of study drug, applicable for those who have withdrawn prematurely from the study or who have completed Part A but are not eligible for Part B.

To investigate the safety and efficacy of abatacept with steroid treatment in comparison to steroid treatment alone in up to a 28 week taper of steroid treatment to sustain remission of Giant Cell Arteritis in adults.

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) (or Horton's disease) is a segmental and focal inflammatory arteritis affecting large and medium-sized arteries. Its incidence is estimated at 17.8/100,000 in subjects over 50 years old (and 46/100,000 in subjects over 70 years old). This disease remains a severe pathology due in particular to its vascular, ophthalmological, neurological, cardiac and aortic complications. In case of suspected CAG, management is a real therapeutic emergency. Indeed, only corticosteroid therapy started as early as possible can prevent the occurrence of these complications. The gold standard for the diagnosis of CAG has long been the temporal artery biopsy, but imaging is now considered as a 1st line diagnostic examination for the diagnosis of CAG according to the EULAR 2018 recommendations. Notably, temporal artery MRI has excellent sensitivity and specificity for diagnosis. However, the high diagnostic performance of MRI has been achieved by performing 3D T1 black blood and fat saturation sequences in high resolution (<0.7mm), which are not accessible in all centers in France and worldwide. The realization of identical sequences with a lower resolution could allow a greater generalization of these sequences and improve the diagnostic management of GCA patients, including in non-expert centers. The objective of our study is to investigate the diagnostic performance of several 3D T1 black blood and fat saturation sequences for the diagnosis of GCA.

The objectives of this observational cohort study are : To assess the ability of optic nerve (ON), optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) and optic nerve sheath thickness (ONST) measured by ultrasound to predict Giant Cell Arteritis. To evaluate changes in ON, ONSD, ONST measurements in patients with confirmed GCA after three months of therapy To assess dynamic changes in ON, ONSD, ONST measurements in patients with relapsing GCA

Giant cell arteritis (GCA), also known as Horton's disease, is an inflammatory arteritis of the large and medium-sized arteries, with an estimated incidence of 17.8/100,000 in people over 50. The disease presents potential ophthalmological, neurological, cardiac and aortic vascular complications, making diagnosis an emergency in cases of suspected Horton's disease. only corticosteroid therapy started as early as possible can prevent these complications. Diagnosis has historically relied on temporal artery biopsy, but the recent ACR/EULAR 2022 classification criteria propose alternatives to this invasive examination, in particular imaging tests such as temporal artery ultrasound and PET scans. Although not included in these latest recommendations, high-definition wall MRI can also provide arguments in favor of this diagnosis, and avoid the need for a temporal artery biopsy, the sensitivity of which is only 75%. The investigators recently demonstrated in a prospective cohort that wall MRI, possibly coupled with temporal artery ultrasound or retinal angiography, was far superior to temporal artery biopsy in diagnostic performance. The main limitation of these imaging tests is the lack of data in the literature on the evolution of abnormalities over time, and in particular after initiation of oral corticosteroid therapy. This uncertainty makes it difficult to use these examinations to monitor disease activity, particularly in cases of suspected relapse, a frequent situation in which the clinician is regularly put at fault due to an often frustrating symptomatology and the possible absence of a frank biological inflammatory syndrome. The investigators propose to conduct a study aimed at describing the evolution of cranial vessel wall abnormalities on wall MRI and ultrasound by systematically repeating these examinations at 1 month, 3 months from the initial MRI performed at diagnosis, in addition to the follow-up performed as part of care at 6 and 12 months from diagnosis. In the event of a relapse in the intervening period, a new MRI scan can be performed and compared with the most recent MRI scan, to look for evidence of disease activity.

The work carried out at the Brest University Hospital on serum immunological changes in patients with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) (based on clinical protocols TENOR, SEMAPHORE, THEN) made it possible to describe the changes in the distribution of lymphocyte subpopulations and cytokine levels during PPR, before and then under treatment compared to controls. However, in systemic autoimmune or inflammatory pathologies, serum immunological mechanisms are rarely a reflection of intra-tissue mechanisms. In the specific case of PMR, there are few data concerning muscular or joint immunological modifications. The investigators now wish to study the immunological modifications occurring at the tissue sites of interest, in particular in the shoulder bursae

A longitudinal post-marketing surveillance registry nested within the UK GCA Consortium that assesses the effectiveness and safety of tocilizumab in controlling refractory or relapsing forms of GCA in patients who require escalation of therapy to reach sustained remission. Half the patients recruited will have been prescribed tocilizumab (cases) and the other half will be prescribed alternative therapies (controls). There are four study visits over 18 months: baseline, 6 months, 12 months and 18 months. At each visit data is collected on demographics; diagnosis and investigations; previous and concomitant medications; medical history; co-morbidities, vital signs; smoking and alcohol; disease activity and damage; routine laboratory tests; reason for starting escalation therapy. Safety data is collected on an ongoing basis.

Over the last decades outcome has greatly improved for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA). This is in sharp contrast to the situation for polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR), with a lifetime prevalence of 2.4% for women and 1.7% for men, PMR is the commonest auto-inflammatory musculoskeletal disease in adults aged ≥50 years. Due to population ageing, the number of PMR patients will likely double in the decades to come (CBS). Glucocorticoids (GC) are the mainstay of treatment. However, there is an unmet medical need of alternatives in the treatment of PMR as 50% of patients will relapse or have difficulties to reduce the corticosteroid doses. Also, there is increasing awareness of steroid related toxicity and in addition, long-term toxicity is a well-known side-effect of glucocorticoids in PMR. Low dose methotrexate (< 10 mg per week) has been tested in two blinded randomized control trials and 4 open label studies and has shown low to moderate efficacy as corticosteroid-sparing agent. Studies on tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blockers yielded negative results. The effectiveness of leflunomide has only been convincingly demonstrated in case series. The high rate of relapses and adverse events in steroid treated patients indicate that alternative adjuvant agents are needed. There is evidence that leflunomide could serve as steroid sparing agent and that leflunomide can be used to prevent relapses in the clinical management of polymyalgia rheumatica. We will perform a randomized placebo controlled trial. Eligible patients will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio receiving either leflunomide 20 mg once daily + glucocorticoids , or placebo + glucocorticoids.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a pro-inflammatory cytokine, has been found to have a crucial role in the pathogenesis of Giant cel arteritis (GCA). Based on this rationale, several recent studies demonstrated the efficacy of tocilizumab (TCZ), an anti-IL-6 targeted monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of patients with refractory GCA. Confirming previous reports,in a recent retrospective study the investigators successfully treated 10 patient with refractory GCA with TCZ. All patients achieved a complete disease remission evaluated by clinical, laboratory, and positron emission tomography (PET). In a considerable number of GCA patients treated with corticosteroids (CS) the therapy may be interrupted with no disease flares. No data are available on the management of patients achieving the remission with TCZ.

SYNOPSIS The giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most frequent vasculitis in people over 50 years. Despite recent progress and physiopathogenic, corticosteroids remains the standard treatment for decades with a very good initial clinical efficacy but a high relapse rate (nearly 40% to 6,5 months) during its decay. This sensible population is particularly exposed to the side effects of corticosteroids, leading to think about savings strategies. But the association of immunosuppressive therapy and/or anti- TNFα has not demonstrated benefits in terms of efficiency or long-term tolerance to cumulative doses of prednisone. The responsibility of proinflammatory cytokines such as TNFα, IL- 6 and IL-1 has been studied in the pathogenesis of GCA in temporal artery walls and in mouse models. The primary pathogenic role of IL- 1 is based on the increase in serum or nuclear protein itself or that of its mRNA. The study of temporal artery biopsies has shown increased local production of IL- 1β mRNA, IL- 6 and TGFβ (indicative of macrophage activation ) and those of INFɣ and IL 2 (indicative of T lymphocyte activation). Recently, Ly et al (Ly KH JBS 2014) reported the efficacy of anakinra, a recombinant molecule of IL- 1RA specifically blocking the IL- 1 α/β, in three cases GCA refractory to conventional treatments. Here investigators propose a randomized, multicenter, controlled, double-blind study of anakinra against placebo in addition to corticosteroids in the treatment of GCA. This study will include 70 patients randomized equally in both arms: reference treatment (prednisone plus placebo) or the experimental treatment (prednisone + anakinra). Treatment with prednisone will be identical in the two arms, namely a dose of 0.7 mg/kg/day orally on day 1, followed by a progressive decrease in the dose pattern depending on the weight. In the experimental arm, dose of anakinra is the one usually used, ie 100 mg/day by subcutaneous injection from day 1 until the end of week 16 (S16). In the reference arm of the treatment, a placebo anakinra is associated with corticosteroid in the same packaging, duration and respecting the double-blind. Investigators thus hypothesized that the addition of anakinra to corticosteroid compared to placebo added to the latter, will show a significant decrease in GAC relapse rate. Indeed, the challenge of corticosteroid therapy in this disease is not so much a problem of initial effectiveness, than the adverse events related to relapses and steroid dependence.