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Achieving clinical tolerance in allergy, autoimmunity and solid organ transplantation is a daunting challenge due to the complex and multi-faceted nature of the immune system. Part of the ITN’s mission is to unravel the mechanisms of tolerance to better target future strategies for inducing tolerance, and to disseminate these findings. Towards these ends, the ITN hosted a Member Society Symposium at the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCiS) meeting that highlighted five of the ITN’s recent mechanistic and clinical achievements, and how this work fits in with the broader pursuit of tolerance in allergy, autoimmunity and transplantation.

This is a reminder that the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) is currently seeking short "Concept Proposals" for novel combination therapy clinical trials designed to induce immune tolerance in allergy and asthma. The ITN is especially interested in the following.

The ACCESS ITN034AI clinical trial for lupus nephritis achieved a milestone by completing enrollment of 137 participants, five months ahead of schedule. ACCESS is a randomized, placebo-controlled research study for participants 16 years of age or older who have been diagnosed with lupus and who have developed complications in their kidneys.

Data from an Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) peanut allergy pilot study will be presented in an oral abstract at the upcoming European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) annual meeting in Geneva, Switzerland on June 16-20, 2012.

The Immune Tolerance Netowork (ITN) is hosting a Member Society Symposium entitled “A View Towards (Immune) Tolerance” on June 20^th, 2012 at the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) annual meeting in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Data from two ITN transplant trials will be reported at the upcoming American Transplant Congress (ATC) meeting in Boston, MA on June 2-6, 2012.

In a recently published review in the American Journal of Transplantation, ITN authors Nadia Tchao, MD and Laurence Turka, MD discuss the biology of lymphocyte depletion and considerations for strategies that aim to promote pro-tolerogenic reconstitution in transplant settings. The depletion of lymphocytes (T cells and B cells) is a strategy increasingly being used to help prevent rejection in transplant settings by reducing the pool of alloreactive cells. However, as lymphocytes begin to grow back they can adopt a phenotype that favors rejection which poses a challenge to long-term tolerance induction. For depletion to be an effective therapy for alloimmunity, clinical approaches should aim to shift re-expansion of T and B cells away from alloreactive subtypes.

The T1DAL ITN045AI clinical research study for recently diagnosed type 1 diabetes has completed enrollment at 19 clinical centers across the U.S. T1DAL is a randomized, placebo-controlled research study for participants between the ages of 12-35 and recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. The goal of this trial is to determine whether the drug alefacept (Amevive ®) can delay or permanently halt the destruction of beta cells in new-onset type 1 diabetes. If the destruction of the beta cells is stopped, the body might be able to produce insulin on its own longer, which could stop or slow progression of the disease.

This World Asthma Day 2012, NIH renews its commitment to working with individuals, families and healthcare professionals to reduce the worldwide burden of asthma. We commend the NIH-supported investigators who continue to make significant progress in asthma research, and we express our gratitude to the people who have participated in NIH-sponsored asthma research studies, as well as to the organizations that provide support for those affected by this disease.

Results from the ITN020AI STAyCIS study, testing atorvastatin therapy in early multiple sclerosis, were just published in Neurology. The study, led by Scott Zamvil, MD (University of California, San Francisco), evaluated the safety and efficacy of atorvastatin (Lipitor®, Pfizer) in subjects with early signs that often lead to multiple sclerosis (MS), termed clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). Previous preclinical studies demonstrated the ability of statins to reduce disease activity in MS models. This study was the first to test whether statin medication alone reduces the risk of conversion to MS in at-risk CIS patients.