Plasma Oncostatin M, TNF-α, IL-7, and IL-13 Network Predicts Crohn's Disease Response to Infliximab, as Assessed by Calprotectin Log Drop

Background: Cytokines emerge as possible biomarkers of response in Crohn's disease (CD). We aimed to determine the plasmatic cytokine profiles of active CD patients who started infliximab (IFX) treatment and their capacity to predict the response to IFX. Methods: A total of 30 active CD patients receiving an induction therapy of IFX were enrolled in the study. Peripheral blood samples pretreatment were collected. Concentrations of 15 cytokines were measured by Luminex technology. Responses to IFX were evaluated by the drop in fecal calprotectin based on its logarithm-transformed values. A random forest (RF) predictive model was used for data analyses. Results: Samples of 22 patients were analyzed. The RF model ranked the following cytokines as the top predictors of the response: tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha), interleukin (IL)-13, oncostatin M (OSM), and IL-7 (p < 0.005). Partial dependency plots showed that high levels of IL-13 pretreatment, low TNF alpha levels, and low IL-7 levels were associated with a favorable IFX response. Increased levels of OSM and TNF alpha predicted unfavorable responses to IFX. Conclusions: We here show that a log drop in calprotectin strongly correlates with clinical parameters and it can be proposed as a useful objective clinical response predictor. Plasma TNF alpha, IL-13, Il-7, and OSM network could predict CD response to IFX before induction therapy, as assessed by calprotectin log drop. (c) 2020 S. Karger AG, Basel

Automated summary

The study identified plasma levels of TNF alpha, IL-13, IL-7, and OSM as predictors of response to infliximab in Crohn's disease patients before induction therapy, with high IL-13 levels, low TNF alpha levels, and low IL-7 levels associated with a favorable response, while increased levels of OSM and TNF alpha predicted unfavorable responses.