Treating scleroderma lung disease with B cell depletion

Abstract

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare, aggressive, systemic, autoimmune disease especially because of internal (vital) organ involvement, most commonly over the last decades of the lungs. Therefore, there is an increasing need for the rheumatologist to select an effective treatment in order to improve patients' prognosis.Recent experimental data have established a role of the B cell in pathogenesis of the disease. B cell depletion, although not usually chosen as first-line treatment, has been investigated over the past decade in controlled and uncontrolled trials with satisfactory results mainly in skin involvement, but trials of B cell depletion in improving lung function do not lag behind in effectiveness compared to respective results in the skin. This review is referring to trials that have attributed B cell depletion an optimistic view of halting progression of interstitial lung disease in scleroderma.Bounia CA (2020) Treating scleroderma lung disease with B cell depletion