Sjögren’s spotlight: Everything you’ve missed for Sjögren’s Awareness Month

Sjögren’s disease is one of the most common autoimmune diseases but one of the least known, so to raise awareness of the condition, April is designated Sjögren’s Awareness Month.

Patients often wait a long time for their diagnosis, only to find that treatments successful in other autoimmune diseases will not work for them.

Approximately 4 million Americans — nine out of 10 of them women — are living with the disease, according to the Sjögren’s Foundation. Their symptoms can vary widely, but often combine dry eyes and mouth with joint fatigue, pain and swelling.

Each day this month, the Sjögren’s Foundation has highlighted a different patient’s journey, sharing the ways Sjögren’s has impacted their life and how they have adapted to live with it.

To close out Sjögren’s Awareness Month, Healio has put together its latest coverage on the disease, which includes stories on drug advancements, research funding and more.

Trial of tivanisiran for dry eye associated with Sjögren’s fails to meet primary endpoint

A phase 3 clinical trial of tivanisiran failed to meet the primary endpoint in the treatment of dry eye disease associated with Sjögren’s syndrome, according to a press release from Sylentis.

The primary endpoint of the randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled trial was the evaluation of tivanisiran’s efficacy, including signs and symptoms. Read more.

Topline data: Nipocalimab bests placebo for myasthenia gravis, Sjögren’s

Nipocalimab met the primary endpoint in a pivotal phase 3 trial in patients with generalized myasthenia gravis, as well as in a phase 2 study in adults with Sjögren’s disease, according to topline results released by Johnson & Johnson.

Compared with placebo, nipocalimab achieved statistically significant reductions in myasthenia gravis symptom scores at weeks 22 to 24 in the phase 3 VIVACITY trial, according to a release from Johnson & Johnson. In the phase 2 DAHLIAS trial, the drug also showed statistically significant reductions in a Sjögren’s disease severity scale, ClinESSDAI, at 24 weeks compared with placebo. The drug was well-tolerated across both studies. Read more.

NIH grants Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation $5.8 million for Sjögren’s research

The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation has received a $5.8 million award from the NIH for research into the diagnosis and management of Sjögren’s disease, according to a press release.

OMRF researchers Darise Farris, PhD, Joel Guthridge, PhD, and Christopher Lessard, PhD, were awarded the 4-year grant through the Accelerating Medicines Partnership in Autoimmune and Immune-Mediated Diseases Program (AMP AIM). The group aims to develop less invasive tools for diagnosis and identify new therapeutic targets for Sjögren’s disease, which has no cure. Read more.

Pregnant patients with low anti-Ro titers have ‘little to no’ risk for fetal heart block

Pregnant patients with very low anti-Ro antibody titers of fewer than 1,000 units per mL have minimal-to-no risk for fetal atrioventricular block, according to data presented at ACR Convergence 2023.

“[Fetal atrioventricular block] is a really serious problem,” Jill Buyon, MD, of the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, said at a press conference during the meeting. “It occurs in about 1% [of mothers with anti-Ro antibodies], but the recurrence rate can be as high as 18%. The fatality rate is about 17%, and if you have cardiac abnormalities on top of that with regard to function, this can actually go up to as high as 35%. Read more.

Pregnancies in patients with Sjögren’s syndrome have ‘very good prognoses’

Pregnancies among patients with Sjögren’s syndrome demonstrate “very good prognoses” for both the parent and fetus, and do not reflect an increased risk for adverse outcomes, according to data published in The Lancet Rheumatology.

“The consequences of connective tissue diseases on pregnancies have mostly been studied in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and antiphospholipid syndrome, which are more common than primary Sjögren’s syndrome in young women,” Grégoire Martin de Frémont, MD, of the Université Paris-Saclay, in France, and colleagues wrote. “Most studies reported higher frequencies of adverse pregnancy outcomes in patients with Sjögren’s syndrome, including more miscarriages and intrauterine fetal deaths, preterm deliveries, small-for-gestational-age birthweight, and intrauterine growth retardation, as well as higher numbers of caesarean sections.” Read more.

References:

Sjögren’s April Awareness Month. https://sjogrens.org/get-involved/spread-awareness/sjogrens-april-awareness-month. Accessed April 23, 2024.

Frequently Asked Questions. https://sjogrens.org/understanding-sjogrens/frequently-asked-questions. Accessed April 23, 2024.