ITN News

The Feinstein Institute in New York City has enrolled the first patient in the Immune Tolerance Network’s ACCESS clinical trial of abatacept and cyclophosphamide for lupus nephritis. The study is seeking to enroll 100 participants at clinical centers across the US and Mexico over the next three years.Systemic lupus erythematosus (or ‘SLE’, commonly known as ‘lupus’) affects an estimated 1.5 million Americans, 90% of whom are women.

As you may have noticed, the ITN website has undergone some pretty majorchanges. We hope you enjoy the new look and will find the new site easier tonavigate and as informative as our previous versions. Our website has gone through several iterations since the ITN was founded in 1999. Prior to this redesign, the last revision took place in May 2002, whenthe ITN was still relatively young and was conducting only a handful of clinical trials.

A phase I study of costimulatory blocking agent CTLA4Ig shows that the treatment appears safe for use in multiple sclerosis and that it can induce favorable immunologic changes. Results from the ITN-led study were published in the September 16, 2008 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Neurology. A total of 20 relapsing-remitting MS subjects were enrolled in the phase 1 dose escalation study of intravenous CTLA4Ig infusions, conducted at Brigham & Women's Hospital under the direction of principal investigator Samia J. Khoury, MD.

Subject enrollment in the ITN's study of immunosuppression withdrawal in pediatric liver transplantation was completed this month, with the enrollment of the 20th and final subject.The study, led by University of California San Francisco transplant surgeon Sandy Feng, MD, aims to identify immunologic or genetic tests indicating that a patient may be safely removed from immunosuppressive therapy following liver transplantation.

In an ITN study of combined kidney and bone marrow transplantation, four of five subjects studied were able to be removed from all anti-rejection medications and maintain functioning kidney transplants. The study was led by Drs. David Sachs and Ben Cosimi of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and published in the January 24, 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The results of an Immune Tolerance Network (ITN)study, published in the October 5, 2006 issue of the New EnglandJournal of Medicine suggest that a six-week experimental allergytreatment can relieve hay fever symptoms for at least two years. Theresearchers believe that the six-injection immunotherapy regimen with anovel DNA-based drug known as ‘AIC’ could offer a significantimprovement over traditional allergen immunotherapy, which can requireseveral years of weekly or bi-weekly injections.

The results of the world's first multicenter clinical trial of islet transplantation have confirmed the technique's potential benefits in patients with difficult-to-control type 1 (or "juvenile") diabetes.

The Juvenile Diabetes ResearchFoundation (JDRF), the world's leading charitable supporter of researchinto type 1 diabetes and its complications, today announced a new,5-year $15 million joint funding program with the NIH-supported ImmuneTolerance Network (ITN) that is aimed at accelerating the pace ofclinical research towards a cure for type 1 diabetes.  TheJDRF-ITN Partnership in Immune Tolerance program will fund early-stageclinical trials and late stage preclinical development of potentialimmune tolerance-inducing treatments for type 1

The Immune Tolerance Network today releasedupdated results from its multicenter clinical trial of the EdmontonProtocol for islet transplantation. The results provide furtherconfirmation that transplantation of pancreatic islet cells can safelyand effectively eliminate the need for daily insulin injections inpatients with type 1 diabetes. The expanded results, encompassing theentire cohort of 36 patients enrolled in the trial also confirms thatthe technique can be successfully applied at multiple clinical centers.Dr.