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Immunotherapy that exposes hay-fever patients to increasing amounts of grass pollen over time can be an effective way to reduce severe allergic symptoms in the long term. But in a new study published today in the journal JAMA, results from the ITN GRASS trial demonstrate that a two-year course of treatment is not enough to achieve lasting effects, bolstering previous findings that more time is needed taking the medication to get lasting benefit.

In a study appearing online in Neurology, the HALT-MS trial demonstrated that patients with active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) showed sustained remission out to 5 years following high dose immunosuppressive therapy combined with autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (HDIT/HCT).

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Jerry Nepom, Director of the ITN, has received the 2017 George Eisenbarth Award, a prestigious honor in recognition of his career in research for type 1 diabetes (T1D). The award was presented to Dr. Nepom at the international Immunology of Diabetes conference, held in San Francisco in January. The award was established in 2013 upon the death of George Eisenbarth, a pioneer in the field of type 1 diabetes. Dr. Marion Rewers, from the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, presented this award to Dr. Nepom, who was cited for contributions as a leader who made major discoveries in the immunology, biomarkers and therapy of T1D. Dr. Nepom delivered a keynote address to the conference outlining strategies for immunotherapy of T1D, dedicated in honor of Dr. Eisenbarth.

An expert panel sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, issued clinical guidelines to aid health care providers in early introduction of peanut-containing foods to infants to prevent the development of peanut allergy.

Study results suggesting that T cell exhaustion markers may be correlated with treatment response in type 1 diabetes (T1D) patients from the Immune Tolerance Network’s AbATE study were published today in Science Immunology. This research, led by Alice Long, PhD, and Peter Linsley, PhD, at Benaroya Research Institute, used integrated systems biology and flow cytometry approaches to investigate pathways associated with C-peptide stabilization in responders to anti-CD3 treatment. The authors determined that a population of CD8 T cells that resemble exhausted T cells is associated with the best treatment outcome, suggesting T cell exhaustion as a potential target for therapy in T1D.

Abatacept (Orencia®; Bristol-Myers Squibb) did not reduce the number of new gadolinium-enhancing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) lesions in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis compared to a placebo after 24 weeks.  Results from the Immune Tolerance Network’s ACCLAIM study, led by Samia Khoury, MD (Brigham and Women’s Hospital) were published today in the Multiple Sclerosis Journal.

The Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) opened up a new observational transplant trial, ALLTOL, with the enrollment of its first two participants at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) June 30, 2016. ALLTOL is a prospective cohort study to enroll “operationally tolerant” kidney and liver transplant recipients who have successfully discontinued immunosuppressive medications and continue to have normal function in their transplanted organ. The goal is to collect specimens and follow these individuals to monitor long-term health and understand immune characteristics unique to this rare patient population.

The 12 young liver transplant recipients in the Immune Tolerance Network’s WISP-R Study (Withdrawal of Immunosuppression in Pediatric Liver Transplant Recipients) show no immunological or histological signs of rejection four years after coming off all immunosuppressive medications. The data were published last week in Hepatology.

Better blood glucose control is correlated with C-peptide preservation, a marker of natural insulin production, in individuals with type 1 diabetes who participated in the Immune Tolerance Network’s T1DAL Study [Inducing Remission in New Onset T1DM with Alefacept (Amevive®)]. This secondary analysis of T1DAL data is the first to demonstrate the correlation between insulin preservation and glycemic control in a clinical trial with an immune-targeting drug in type 1 diabetes. The data are published in the June 17^th Diabetes Mellitus Topic Update in Clinical Therapeutics. The T1DAL Study was led by Dr. Mark Rigby (Riley Children’s Hospital, Indiana University, Indianapolis) and conducted by the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN).

Introducing peanut to young infants in the LEAP peanut allergy prevention study did not negatively impact duration of breast feeding, nutritional intake, or growth five years later. The data published last week in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology alleviate potential concerns about whether adding peanut to the diet of this very young population (age 4-11 to 60 months) could have had negative effects on growth and nutrition.