Nature of Anifrolumab Impact on Vaccine-Emergent Immunity in SLE

This group of researchers previously observed that lupus patients with an elevated interferon alpha signal produced less neutralizing antibody to influenza vaccine which was directly or indirectly associated with increased flares and autoantibody production after immunization. Anifrolumab is an inhibitor of signaling through the Type I interferon alpha beta receptor. The current study is an open label parallel group pilot study to examine the impact of anifrolumab on development of neutralizing antibodies to quadrivalent influenza vaccine in patients with SLE. 10 patients with moderately to severely active SLE will initiate treatment with anifrolumab while continuing standard of care medications and 10 will receive only standard of care medications. Two weeks after baseline all will receive influenza vaccine. Blood samples will be drawn at baseline (Day 0), just prior to immunization (Week 2), and Weeks 4, 8, 12 and 16. Disease activity, gene/cytokine expression, autoantibody production and patient reported outcomes will also be tracked.