Results of an Immune Tolerance Network clinical trial may provide doctors with another weapon in the treatment of ANCA-associated vasculitis, which has seen no new approved treatments in 40 years. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that the drug rituximab provides the same treatment benefits as the existing standard of care, and appears to offer additional benefits to those suffering relapses.
The results of two Immune Tolerance Network (ITN)-sponsored efforts in identifying genetic and cellular signatures of transplant tolerance were published this week in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The signatures are patterns of gene expression and cell types that were found to be characteristic of a set of rare patients who developed a natural tolerance for their kidney transplant – meaning they do not require anti-rejection medications.
The ITN is currently seeking Concept Proposals for novel clinical trials designed to induce immune tolerance in Type 1 Diabetes, transplantation, autoimmune diseases, and allergy and asthma. In addition the ITN accepts applications for the development of novel tolerance assays or mechanistic studies for the purposes of establishing new surrogate biomarkers of immune tolerance and investigating the mechanisms of clinical tolerance. Proposals should be submitted via our site: http://www.immunetolerance.org/professionals/proposals/guidelines
