ITN News

ITN Director and founder, Jeffrey A. Bluestone has accepted the position of Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost at the University of California, San Francisco, pending approval by the UC Regents. Details of his new appointment may be found on the UCSF website .  As he embarks upon his latest challenge at UCSF, Bluestone will step down as Director of the Immune Tolerance Network.  From its inception a decade ago, Bluestone has led the ITN with extraordinary dedication.

The ITN's START research trial for new-onset type 1 diabetes has received the approval of its Data Safety and Monitoring Board to accept patients aged 12-18 years into the study. The decision was made after a review of safety data from the initial group of 10 adult subjects enrolled into the study. The trial is now open to individuals between the ages of 12-35 who have been diagnosed with new-onset type 1 diabetes within the past 3 months.  The START trial is being conducted under the direction of principal investigator Dr.

Results of the ITN's study of a novel vaccine for treatment of new onset type 1 diabetes has been published in the Journal of Autoimmunity. Led by Joslin Diabetes Clinic's Tihamer Orban, the study determined that a vaccine comprised of insulin B-chain in incomplete Freund's adjuvant was generally safe and well-tolerated.

The Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) is seeking ‘Proposal Outlines’ for novel clinical trials designed to induce immune tolerance in psoriasis and other autoimmune skin disorders, including those mediated by autoantibodies such as pemphigus and pemphigoid.A special assessment group has been convened by the ITN to consider these proposals.

Three abstracts from ITN studies are being presented at this year's AmericanTransplant Congress in Boston, MA, held May 20-June 3, 2009. UCSF's Sandy Feng will present the preliminary results of her study of immunosuppressionwithdrawal in pediatric liver transplant recipients.

The full cohort of 640 children has now been enrolled in the ITN LEAP study of peanut allergy. The study is being conducted under the direction of principal investigator Gideon Lack, MD at Evelina Children’s Hospital, part of Guys and St Thomas Hospital in London, UK. The study addresses a growing scientific and public health controversy as to whether children at risk of developing peanut allergy can best prevent the condition by regular consumption of peanut or by avoiding it altogether. Results of the long-term study are expected in 2013.

The Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) has completed enrolling the full cohort of 83 patients in its Autoimmunity-blocking Antibody for Tolerance in type 1 diabetes, or ‘AbATE’ trial. The clinical trial is aimed at determining whether the antibody teplizumab -- also known as hOKT3g1(Ala-Ala) – can halt progression of newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.

The ITN protocol for the measurement of Fox-P3-expressing T regulatory (Treg) cells has been published in the March 2009 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Cytometry B: Clinical Cytometry. The manuscript by lead authors Jean Grant and Katarzyna Bourcier describes a standardized a protocol for FoxP3 antibody staining for use in clinical trials. FoxP3, also known as forkhead box protein P3, appears to function as a master regulator in the development and function of Treg cells.

Summary - The purpose of this EOI is to gather information from the scientific community about novel ideas for tolerogenic immunotherapeutic trials in type 1 diabetes (T1D) under the ITN-JDRF Partnership in Type 1 Diabetes Program.

Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital have enrolled the first of 15 planned patients in the ITN's expanded clinical trial of mixed chimerism, a technique designed to replace the need for long-term immunosuppression in kidney transplantation. The patient, who suffered from end-stage renal failure caused by Alport's Syndrome, received bone marrow and a kidney from the same living donor on January 27, 2009. Both donor and recipient are currently doing well.