Assessment of circulating blood lymphocytes in adult patients on rituximab to treat immune thrombocytopenia: Circulating number of NK cells is associated with the response at 6 months

Abstract

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is defined by a low platelet count that can trigger potentially life-threatening haemorrhages. Three-quarters of adult patients exhibit persistent or chronic disease and require second-line treatments. Among these, rituximab, an anti-CD20 antibody, has yielded valuable results, with global responses in 60% of patients at 6 months and complete responses in 30% at 5 years. Factors predictive of response to ITP therapy would help physicians choose optimal treatments. We retrospectively analysed clinical courses, biological markers and blood lymphocyte subset numbers of 72 patients on rituximab to treat persistent/chronic ITP followed-up in our department between 2007 and 2021, divided into three groups according to the platelet count at 6 months: complete, partial or no response. Among all studied parameters, a low number of CD3^- CD16⁺ CD56⁺ circulating NK cells was associated with the complete response to rituximab. We also found that, after rituximab therapy, complete responders exhibited increased NK and decreased activated CD8⁺ T cell percentages. These results emphasize that the role played by NK cells in ITP remains incompletely known but that factors predictive of response to rituximab can be easily derived using blood lymphocyte subset data.

Keywords: NK cells; adult; immune thrombocytopenia; rituximab.