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Oral Immunotherapy is known to be an effective means of desensitizing some patients to food allergens, but could the early introduction of foods in high-risk patients prevent allergies altogether? That is the primary question to be addressed by the ITN’s LEAP study (Promoting Tolerance to Peanut in High-Risk Children) led by Gideon Lack, MD (Kings College London) which aims to determine whether peanut oral immunotherapy or peanut avoidance is better for reducing peanut allergies in at-risk infants. Patients with peanut sensitization are the ones most likely to develop peanut allergy in the future. In this new Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology paper, investigators determined criteria to identify infants who are at risk for developing peanut allergy but without already-established clinical peanut allergy.

With deep regret and sadness we note the passing of George Eisenbarth, MD, a member of the ITN family, steering committee, and executive committee since the founding of the network.  George was a pioneer in the field of type 1 diabetes research, a great mentor to many, and a wonderful colleague, whose passion for preventing autoimmune diabetes energized us all.

Three abstracts from the ITN’s RAVE study (Rituximab for the Treatment of ANCA-associated Vasculitis  and Microscopic Polyangiitis) will be presented at the upcoming American College of Rheumatology (ACR) annual meeting in Washington, DC November on 9-14, 2012.

Data from three Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) type 1 diabetes studies will be presented at the upcoming European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) meeting on October 1-5, 2012 in Berlin, Germany.

Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) investigators Stephen Durham, MD and Guy Scadding, MD from the Imperial College London conducted a pilot study in collaboration with ALK Abello to evaluate a technique to reproducibly measure time-dependent immunologic responses to allergens using nasal secretion collections. Results from this pilot study are published in the Journal of Immunological Methods [see here].

Results from the IL2-RAPA ITN018AI study, exploring a novel experimental therapy for type 1 diabetes that boosts parts of the healthy immune system, are reported today in the scientific journal Diabetes. The trial was led by Carla Greenbaum, MD, Diabetes Research Program director at Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI), and sponsored by the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN), a clinical trial network funded by the National Institutes of Health.  The trial took a unique two-pronged approach to treating Type 1diabetes in newly diagnosed participants. Two drugs were administered in combination. One drug interferes with the immune response that causes Type 1 diabetes while a second drug simultaneously boosted the part of the immune response that usually regulates overactive immune cells.

Detailed below is the fifth and final achievement the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) recently presented at the Member Society Symposium at the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCiS) meeting, and how this work fits in with the broader pursuit of tolerance in transplantation.

Detailed below is a fourth achievement the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) recently presented at the Member Society Symposium at the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCiS) meeting, and how this work fits in with the broader pursuit of tolerance in allergy.

Detailed below is a third achievement the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) recently presented at the Member Society Symposium at the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCiS) meeting, and how this work fits in with the broader pursuit of tolerance in transplantation.

Detailed below is a second achievement the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) recently presented at the Member Society Symposium at the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCiS) meeting, and how this work fits in with the broader pursuit of tolerance in autoimmunity.