The Immune Tolerance Network’s (ITN) TrialShare Clinical Trials Research Portal (www.ITNTrialShare.org) has won the National Academy of Sciences Data and Information Challenge. The theme of this year’s competition, launched and judged by the academy’s Board on Research Data and Information (BDRI), was “Using Data for the Public Good.”
The Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) is currently seeking proposals for clinical tolerance trials in transplantation using solid organs or islets from deceased donors.
Proposals should meet the following criteria:
The ITN is hosting a Member Society Symposium entitled “Mechanisms of Tolerance” on June 25th, 2014 (12:45-pm-4:45pm CT) during the annual Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) meeting in Chicago, IL. The symposium features talks on emerging hypotheses of immune tolerance mechanisms:
Engrafting Tolerance using Hematopoeitic Stem Cells |
An article published last week in Disease Models and Mechanisms by Dawn Smilek, MD, PhD, Mario Ehlers, MD, PhD, and Jerry Nepom, MD, PhD, provides a review of mechanisms involved in the disruption of tolerance to self-antigens in autoimmune disease, highlighting where those mechanisms can be targeted as a means of restoring tol
Today the ITN launched the PAUSE study (ITN059AI, “Efficacy of Ustekinumab followed by Abatacept for the Treatment of Psoriasis Vulgaris”), which will test the combination of two biologics, ustekinumab (Janssen Biotech, Inc.) and abatacept (Bristol-Myers Squibb), in psoriasis patients. This study is being led by James Krueger, MD, PhD (The Rockefeller University).
Creating durable disease remission in type 1 diabetes has proved challenging: etiology remains uncertain and immune interventions have only been able to delay disease progression temporarily. To better understand underlying disease pathways, the ITN conducts sophisticated mechanistic assays on high-quality specimens collected from each of its clinical trials. After a study is complete, unused mechanistic specimens are available to the scientific community for further research through the ITN’s Clinical Trials Research Portal, TrialShare.
The promise of autologous stem cell transplantation in patients with autoimmune disease is that the newly reconstituted immune system will be reset in a way that no longer favors autoimmunity. The ITN’s HALT-MS study (High-Dose Immunosuppression and Autologous Transplantation for Multiple Sclerosis) used high-dose immunosuppression followed by an autologous stem cell transplant in 24 relapsing, remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in an attempt to reconstitute a healthy immune system.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID/NIH) announced that the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) has been awarded a UM1 grant for a Collaborative Network for Clinical Research on Immune Tolerance (RFA-AI-12-043). This award represents the third NIH funding disbursement since the ITN’s inception in 2000. The current grant, covering the next seven years, will allow the ITN to continue to develop, fund and implement mechanistically-focused clinical trials for novel therapies in transplantation, allergy and autoimmune diseases.
The ITN’s ACCEPTOR study (Post-transplant Cyclophosphamide) in kidney transplant is now open for enrollment at Johns Hopkins University. The ACCEPTOR study, led by Lode Swinnen, MD, Ephraim Fuchs, MD, and Robert Montgomery, MD (Johns Hopkins Hospital) will combine hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) and kidney transplants as a means to potentially promote tolerance to the donor kidney.
The ITN’s AVATARS study in ANCA-associated Vasculitis (AAV) opened for enrollment today at the University College London. The AVATARS study (Defining Immune Tolerance in ANCA-associated Vasculitis) led by Alan Salama, MD, PhD (University College London) and Peter Merkel, MD (University of Pennsylvania) is a non-interventional, prospective study that will collect blood specimens from patients with AAV with the goal of identifying biomarkers of tolerance.