Evaluation of the safety, efficacy, and mechanism of action of obexelimab for the treatment of patients with IgG4-related disease: an open-label, single-arm, single centre, phase 2 pilot trial.

Background: Obexelimab is a bifunctional, non-cytolytic, humanised monoclonal antibody that binds CD19 and Fc gamma receptor IIb to inhibit B cells, plasmablasts, and CD19-expressing plasma cells. We aimed to evaluate the safety, clinical efficacy, and pharmacodynamic effects of obexelimab in patients with active IgG4-related disease.

Methods: We conducted an open-label, single-arm, single centre, phase 2 pilot trial at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA, USA.

Online Mindfulness May Target Psychological Distress and Mental Health during COVID-19.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected mental health, creating an urgent need for convenient and safe interventions to improve well-being. Online mindfulness interventions show promise for improving depression, anxiety, and general well-being.

Objective: To assess: 1) the impact of online mindfulness on psychological distress, 2) altruistic efforts, and 3) the quantity, quality, and availability of online mindfulness resources during the COVID-19 pandemic.

CD4CTLs in Fibrosing Mediastinitis Linked to .

Although fibrotic disorders are frequently assumed to be linked to T cells, quantitative tissue interrogation studies have rarely been performed to establish this link and certainly many fibrotic diseases do not fall within the type 2/allergic disease spectrum. We have previously linked two human autoimmune fibrotic diseases, IgG4-related disease and systemic sclerosis, to the clonal expansion and lesional accumulation of CD4CTLs. In both these diseases T cell accumulation was found to be sparse.

IgG4-related disease: Association with a rare gene variant expressed in cytotoxic T cells.

Background: Family screening of a 48-year-old male with recently diagnosed IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) revealed unanticipated elevations in plasma IgG4 in his two healthy teenaged sons.

Methods: We performed gene sequencing, immune cell studies, HLA typing, and analyses of circulating cytotoxic CD4+ T lymphocytes and plasmablasts to seek clues to pathogenesis. DNA from a separate cohort of 99 patients with known IgG4-RD was also sequenced for the presence of genetic variants in a specific gene, FGFBP2.