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A follow-up analysis of the participants from ITN’s LEAP (Learning Early About Peanut Allergy) Study has identified a strong association between the development of peanut allergy and the MALT1 gene. These findings were recently published in the February 27th issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

ITN’s ACTIVATE (Vaginal Microbiome Exposure and Immune Responses in C-section Infants) has opened for recruitment. The goal of this pilot study is to investigate how differences in the microbiome of a baby may protect, or put them at risk, for allergies. To do this, the study will measure whether wiping babies born by C-section with their mother’s vaginal fluids (which contains potentially beneficial bacteria) right after birth will lower the risk of allergy development.

The Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) is currently developing a clinical trial to test a new treatment for vitiligo, an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks pigment containing cells in the skin leading to disfiguring white spots.

The ITN is currently seeking proposals for clinical trials for novel therapeutic approaches to induce B cell tolerance in patients who are donor-sensitized and/or to prevent sensitization. The therapeutic strategy must test specific immune mechanisms and must provide a clear pathway to future immune tolerance trials in solid organ transplantation.

ITN’s recently published article, reporting the mechanistic results from the GRASS clinical trial, was highlighted in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology’s Editors’ Choice Feature in its May 2018 issue.

The gold standard to diagnose food allergy is an oral food challenge (OFC), but it can cause severe allergic reactions in some individuals. Reliable in vitro tests would eliminate undesirable aspects of OFCs, allowing easier and safer diagnoses and assessments of clinical responses to treatments.

This week on WRVO Public Radio's Take Care, hosts Lorraine Rapp and Linda Lowen talk with Dr. Gerald Nepom, director of the Immune Tolerance Network, about the ITN's LEAP study and the new guidelines for the introduction of peanut products that might prevent high risk children from developing the allergy. To listen to the full interview, click here.

In an important follow-up to LEAP-On, which demonstrated that the early introduction of peanut in high-risk infants led to durable prevention of peanut allergy, the investigators now show that early consumption of peanut in infants at high risk of peanut allergy is allergen-specific and does not prevent the development of other allergic disease to other foods, aeroallergens, or allergic reactions to tree nuts and sesame. Furthermore, peanut consumption does not hasten the resolution of eczema or egg allergy.

ITN’s BRAVOS (Evaluation of Brentuximab Vedotin for Diffuse Cutaneous System Sclerosis) has opened for recruitment. The goal of this clinical trial is to determine the safety of an investigational study drug, brentuximab vedotin (ADCETRIS®), in diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (dcSSc). Researchers will also assess whether ADCETRIS® has any effect on symptoms associated with dcSSc, and will examine the effect of the ADCETRIS® on the immune system by looking at blood and skin samples.

An article published today in the American Journal of Transplantation examined the prevalence of a previously identified genetic signature associated with tolerance in a cohort of kidney transplant patients who may benefit from immunosuppression minimization. A transplant recipients’ lifetime use of immunosuppressive drugs to prevent rejection exposes them to health complications associated with drug toxicity and long-term immunosuppression. However, the development of grafted tissue tolerance, either spontaneously or intentionally induced, in some kidney transplant recipients suggests that continued immunosuppression is not always necessary to protect the transplanted organ. As significant incidence of damage to the grafted tissue can occur during minimization or withdrawal of immunosuppression, markers of immune tolerance would be useful in informing safe drug withdrawal in tolerant patients, while protecting non-tolerant patients from unneeded risk. In previous studies, ITN reported increased expression of B cell associated genes in tolerant (spontaneous and induced) kidney transplant recipients that was associated with changes in the frequencies of specific B cell populations and stable. In order to test this “B cell signature” in a clinical setting, the ITN and the Clinical Trials in Organ Transplantation (CTOT) consortium designed the ARTIST clinical trial a multi-center observational study with 248 enrolled stable renal transplant recipients receiving immunosuppression. Peripheral blood collected at three specific time-points one year apart was analyzed for the prevalence and stability of the B cell signature.