Efficacy of vedolizumab for induction of clinical response and remission in patients with moderate to severe inflammatory bowel disease who failed at least two TNF antagonists.

Background: Vedolizumab is a recently available monoclonal antibody targeting α4β7 integrin for the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD).

Objective: The objective of this article is to evaluate the efficacy of vedolizumab induction therapy in anti-TNF-refractory/intolerant UC and CD patients in real life.

Methods: A cohort of 149 moderately to severely active UC and CD patients who failed or showed intolerance to at least two TNF antagonists participated in a medical need program and received vedolizumab in 37 Belgian centers (April-September 2015).

A pilot study of therapeutic vaccination with envelope protein E1 in 35 patients with chronic hepatitis C.

New treatments are needed for chronic hepatitis C patients in whom viral clearance cannot be achieved. Thirty-five chronic hepatitis C patients (genotype 1) were randomized to receive 20 mug of recombinant HCV E1 (E1) (n = 26) or placebo (n = 9) intramuscularly at weeks 0, 4, 8, 12, and 24. Thirty-four then received open-label E1 vaccine at weeks 50, 53, 56, 59, 62, and 65.

Evolution of hepatitis C virus-specific T cell responses and cytokine production in chronic hepatitis C patients treated with high doses of interferon-alpha.

Objective: To assess the evolution of in vitro T cell response to hepatitis C virus (HCV) Core, E1, E2 and NS3 antigens in 10 patients with chronic hepatitis C, before, during and after a high dose interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) therapy, and to evaluate the influence of IFN-alpha on the in vivo and in vitro production of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma).

Methods: T cell response to HCV antigens was evaluated by lymphoproliferation assays. In vivo and in vitro cytokine production was evaluated at weeks 0, 4, 8, and 12 of IFN-alpha therapy by enzyme immunoassays.