Table 4.

Impact of rituximab (RTX) therapy in transactivation of interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and in interferon (IFN)-α and interleukin (IL)-6 production in plasma, in unstimulated and in Toll-like receptor (TLR)-3- and TLR-7/-8-stimulated PBMC.

	Control	Remission	Remission RTX+	P
Number of patients	14	13	13	n.a.
IRF3 activation in PBMC	0·08 ± 0·01a	0·14 ± 0·03b	0·23 ± 0·08b	0·001
Plasma IFN-α	29·80 ± 8·73a	53·36 ± 21·53a	0·00 ± 0·00b	0·0001
IFN-α in unstimulated PBMC	0·63 ± 0·28a	9·69 ± 5·33b	0·20 ± 0·13a	0·02
IFN-α in TLR-3-stimulated PBMC	11·80 ± 6·70a	9·10 ± 2·94a	2·97 ± 2·97b	0·01
IFN-α in TLR-7/-8-stimulated PBMC	397 ± 263ab	13·34 ± 10·14a	1078 ± 520b**	0·03
Number of patients	40	23	15	n.a.
Plasma IL-6	10·21 ± 3·51	6·26 ± 2·95	4·85 ± 2·75	0·79
Number of patients	21	15	10	n.a.
IL-6 in unstimulated PBMC	82·73 ± 20·28a	222 ± 50b	18·40 ± 6·95c	0·002
IL-6 in TLR-3-stimulated PBMC	310 ± 72	405 ± 99	303 ± 132*	0·55
IL-6 in TLR-7/-8-stimulated PBMC	41 505 ± 6399	48 627 ± 17 355	26 093 ± 8014*	0·41

IRF3 activation in PBMC was expressed as optical density (OD) 450 nm per µg of nuclear protein and IFN-α and IL-6 concentration as pg/ml. Production of IFN-α and IL-6 by PBMC was measured in supernatant after 3 days of culture following or not stimulation with Poly I:C (TLR-3 agonist) and Resiquimod (TLR-7/-8 agonist). All the data were obtained by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). When superscript letters are different (a, b, c), means showed significant difference between groups, P < 0·05. Mean with ^** showed a significant difference (P < 0·001) in production of IFN-α in TLR-7/-8-stimulated PBMC compared to unstimulated PBMC in patients in remission RTX+. Means with ^* showed significant difference (P < 0·05) in production of IL-6 in TLR-3- and TLR-7/-8-stimulated PBMC compared to unstimulated PBMC in patients in remission RTX+; n.a. = not applicable.