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Ocrelizumab Depletes CD20+ T Cells in Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Authors :
Thomas Skripuletz
Philipp Schwenkenbecher
Nora Möhn
Martin Stangel
Lars H. Müschen
Kurt-Wolfram Sühs
Martin W. Hümmert
Franz Felix Konen
Jonas Ahlbrecht
Reinhold E. Schmidt
Stefan Gingele
Lena Bönig
Thais Langer Jacobus
Roland Jacobs
Sascha Alvermann
Source :
Cells, Vol 8, Iss 1, p 12 (2018), Cells
Publication Year :
2018
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2018.

Abstract

Ocrelizumab, a humanized monoclonal anti-CD20 antibody, has shown pronounced effects in reduction of disease activity in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and has recently been approved for the treatment of patients with relapsing MS (RMS) and primary progressive MS (PPMS). CD20 is mainly expressed by B cells, but a subset of T cells (CD3+CD20+ T cells) also expresses CD20, and these CD20+ T cells are known to be a highly activated cell population. The blood of MS patients was analyzed with multicolor flow cytometry before and two weeks after treatment with ocrelizumab regarding the phenotype of peripheral blood mononuclear cells. CD20-expressing CD3+ T cells were found in blood samples of all MS patients, accounted for 2.4% of CD45+ lymphocytes, and constituted a significant proportion (18.4%) of all CD20+ cells. CD3+CD20+ T cells and CD19+CD20+ B cells were effectively depleted two weeks after a single administration of 300 mg ocrelizumab. Our results demonstrate that treatment with ocrelizumab does not exclusively target B cells, but also CD20+ T cells, which account for a substantial amount of CD20-expressing cells. Thus, we speculate that the efficacy of ocrelizumab might also be mediated by the depletion of CD20-expressing T cells.

Details

ISSN :
20734409
Volume :
8
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Cells
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....37221995335d9559819adbed77e172a0
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/cells8010012