ITN News

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.

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.