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Individuals with new-onset type 1 diabetes who took two courses of alefacept (Amevive®, Astellas Pharma Inc.) soon after diagnosis show preserved beta cell function after two years compared to those who received a placebo. The positive results of the Immune Tolerance Network’s (ITN) T1DAL study [Inducing Remission in New Onset T1DM with Alefacept (Amevive®)], led by Mark Rigby, MD, PhD, of Indiana University were published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

The results of the Immune Tolerance Network’s (ITN) “Learning Early About Peanut” (LEAP) study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrate that consumption of a peanut-containing snack by infants who are at high-risk for developing peanut allergy prevents the subsequent development of allergy.

On Monday the ITN opened a new pilot study to compare two different methods for assessing allergic responses: environmental exposure chambers and nasal allergen challenges. The CAT EEC study, “Cat Pilot Study – Environmental Exposure Chamber (EEC) vs. Nasal Allergen Challenge (NAC),” is being conducted at Inflamax Research, Inc. in Ontario, Canada and led by Drs.

A new ITN type 1 diabetes trial opened today at the first site, Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, SD.

The ITN has an interest in antigen-specific T cell tolerance in multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease in which autoreactive T cells specific for myelin-associated antigens are thought to play a role in pathogenesis. Assessment of antigen-specific tolerance in multiple sclerosis will require reliable assays to detect and phenotype T cell responses to myelin-associated antigens in a clinical trial setting. To this end, the ITN is seeking assays for assessing functional tolerance and biomarkers of tolerance in antigen-specific CD4 and CD8 effector and regulatory T cells.

An article in Seattle Magazine about the landscape for immunotherapy in Seattle gives a nice mention of the Benaroya Research Institute and the Immune Tolerance Network:

Washington, DC - Three-year outcomes from an ongoing clinical trial suggest that high-dose immunosuppressive therapy followed by transplantation of a person's own blood-forming stem cells may induce sustained remission in some people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). RRMS is the most common form of MS, a progressive autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the brain and spinal cord.

Last Friday the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) opened a new combination therapy study in lupus nephritis, CALIBRATE, at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The CALIBRATE Study will be led by Drs. Betty Diamond (North Shore Feinstein Institute), David Wofsy (UCSF), Cynthia Aranow (North Shore Feinstein Institute), and Maria Dall’Era (UCSF), and will test a novel regimen of rituximab (Rituxan, Genentech, Inc.) followed by belimumab (BENLYSTA®, GlaxoSmithKline) in patients with refractory lupus nephritis.

The results of the ACCESS study, “Abatacept and Cyclophosphamide Combination Therapy for Lupus Nephritis” sponsored by the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) and led by Drs.

The Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) will receive the National Academies' Board on Research Data and Information Challenge Award for