Population Pharmacokinetic Modelling of Intravenous Immunoglobulin Treatment in Patients with Guillain-Barré Syndrome.

Background And Objective: Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) at a standard dosage is the treatment of choice for Guillain-Barré syndrome. The pharmacokinetics, however, is highly variable between patients, and a rapid clearance of IVIg is associated with poor recovery. We aimed to develop a model to predict the pharmacokinetics of a standard 5-day IVIg course (0.

Genetic biomarkers for intravenous immunoglobulin response in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy.

Background And Purpose: Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) is a clinical and electrophysiological heterogeneous immune-mediated polyneuropathy. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg), corticosteroids, and plasma exchange are proven effective treatments for CIDP. The clinical response to IVIg is variable between patients and currently unexplained.

Randomized trial of intravenous immunoglobulin maintenance treatment regimens in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy.

Background And Purpose: High peak serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels may not be needed for maintenance intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) treatment in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) and such high levels may cause side effects. More frequent lower dosing may lead to more stable IgG levels and higher trough levels, which might improve efficacy. The aim of this trial is to investigate whether high frequent low dosage IVIg treatment is more effective than low frequent high dosage IVIg treatment.

Tailor-made multiple sequence alignments using the PRALINE 2 alignment toolkit.

Summary: PRALINE 2 is a toolkit for custom multiple sequence alignment workflows. It can be used to incorporate sequence annotations, such as secondary structure or (DNA) motifs, into the alignment scoring, as well as to customize many other aspects of a progressive multiple alignment workflow.

Availability And Implementation: PRALINE 2 is implemented in Python and available as open source software on GitHub: https://github.

IVIg-induced plasmablasts in patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Objective: The Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an acute, immune-mediated disease of peripheral nerves. Plasmablasts and plasma cells play a central role in GBS by producing neurotoxic antibodies. The standard treatment for GBS is high-dose intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIg), however the working mechanism is unknown and the response to treatment is highly variable.

Motif-Aware PRALINE: Improving the alignment of motif regions.

Protein or DNA motifs are sequence regions which possess biological importance. These regions are often highly conserved among homologous sequences. The generation of multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) with a correct alignment of the conserved sequence motifs is still difficult to achieve, due to the fact that the contribution of these typically short fragments is overshadowed by the rest of the sequence.

Protocol of a dose response trial of IV immunoglobulin in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (DRIP study).

High peak levels of serum IgG may not be needed for maintenance treatment of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg). More frequent dosing of IVIg leads to more stable IgG levels and higher trough levels which may be related with improved clinical efficacy. More frequent lower dosing leads to lower peak levels and may induce less systemic side-effects.

Maintenance IV immunoglobulin treatment in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy.

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) patients treated with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) usually start with a standard dosage of 2 g/kg bodyweight. Only a minority of patients has a sustained improvement, and most require ongoing maintenance treatment. Preferred IVIg regimens, however, vary considerably between doctors and at present it is unknown which is optimal.

Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Intravenous Immunoglobulin G Maintenance Therapy in Chronic Immune-mediated Neuropathies.

The regimen for IVIg maintenance treatment varies considerably between patients with chronic immune-mediated neuropathies. Although it is widely recognized that treatment regimens should be improved, detailed pharmacokinetics (PK) of IVIg have not yet been established. We aimed to determine the PK of IVIg maintenance treatment in patients with clinically stable, treatment-dependent, chronic immune-mediated neuropathy.

Association of Albumin Levels With Outcome in Intravenous Immunoglobulin-Treated Guillain-Barré Syndrome.

Importance: There is an urgent need for biomarkers to monitor treatment efficacy and anticipate outcome in patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).

Objective: To assess whether there is an association between serum albumin levels, a widely used and relatively easily measurable biomarker of health and inflammation, and the clinical course and outcome of GBS in patients treated with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG).

Design, Setting, And Participants: We used serum samples derived from a cohort of patients with GBS admitted to hospitals across the Netherlands participating in national GBS studies from May 5, 1986, through August 2, 2000.

Neonatal Fc receptor promoter gene polymorphism does not predict pharmacokinetics of IVIg or the clinical course of GBS.

Treatment of Guillain-Barré syndrome with a standard course of high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) results in a variable clinical recovery which is associated with changes in serum IgG levels after treatment. The neonatal Fc-receptor protects IgG from degradation, and a genetic polymorphism in its promoter region that influences the expression of Fc-receptor, may in part explain the variation in IgG levels and outcome. This polymorphism was determined by polymerase chain reaction in a cohort of 257 patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome treated with IVIg.

Comparison of Fc N-Glycosylation of Pharmaceutical Products of Intravenous Immunoglobulin G.

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) products from different pharmaceutical companies vary in composition, in part because of the selected blood donors and production process. N-glycosylation of the Fc-portion of IgG varies between blood donors and may influence both the side-effects and therapeutic effectiveness of IVIg. At present, the variation in Fc N-glycosylation between IVIg products has not been defined.

Innate Immunity to Campylobacter jejuni in Guillain-Barré Syndrome.

Objective: Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is a postinfectious neuropathy most frequently caused by Campylobacter jejuni. Lipo-oligosaccharides (LOS), expressed by C. jejuni induce antibodies that cross-react with self-glycolipids in peripheral nerves, causing neuropathy.

The effect of incremental levels of dietary nitrate on methane emissions in Holstein steers and performance in Nelore bulls.

Two experiments were conducted to study effects of dietary nitrate on enteric methane production, blood methemoglobin concentration, and growth rate in cattle. In Exp. 1, 36 Holstein steers (288 ± 25 kg BW) were fed increasing levels of dietary nitrate (6 levels; 0 to 3.

IgG Fc N-glycosylation in Guillain-Barré syndrome treated with immunoglobulins.

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) is the treatment of choice for Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), an immune-mediated peripheral neuropathy causing rapidly progressive limb weakness and respiratory failure. The working mechanism of IVIg in autoimmune diseases has not been elucidated, but previous studies indicate that some anti-inflammatory effects may be mediated by the N-glycosylation of the Fc-portion of IgG. GBS is a model disease to investigate these effects because GBS is an acute and monophasic disorder usually affecting healthy persons, which is treated with a standard course of IVIg, although the clinical response is highly variable.

Effect of induction of subacute ruminal acidosis on milk fat profile and rumen parameters.

High-concentrate diets can lead to subacute ruminal acidosis and are known to result in changes of the ruminal fermentation pattern and mammary secretion of fatty acids. The objective of this paper is to describe modifications in milk fatty acid proportions, particularly odd- and branched-chain fatty acids and rumen biohydrogenation intermediates, associated with rumen parameters during a 6-wk subacute ruminal acidosis induction protocol with 12 ruminally fistulated multiparous cows. The protocol involved a weekly gradual replacement of a standard dairy concentrate with a wheat-based concentrate (610 g of wheat/kg of concentrate) during the first 5 wk and an increase in the total amount of concentrate in wk 6.

Executing multicellular differentiation: quantitative predictive modelling of C.elegans vulval development.

Motivation: Understanding the processes involved in multi-cellular pattern formation is a central problem of developmental biology, hopefully leading to many new insights, e.g. in the treatment of various diseases.