Rituximab versus Mycophenolate Mofetil in Patients with Pemphigus Vulgaris.

Background: Rituximab and mycophenolate mofetil are used to treat pemphigus vulgaris, but they have not been adequately compared in clinical trials.

Methods: In a randomized, controlled trial, we assigned patients with moderate-to-severe pemphigus vulgaris in a 1:1 ratio to receive intravenous rituximab (1000 mg on days 1, 15, 168, and 182) or oral mycophenolate mofetil (2 g per day), in addition to an oral glucocorticoid administered on the same tapering schedule in the two groups. The primary end point was sustained complete remission at week 52, defined as the healing of lesions with no new active lesions, as reflected by a Pemphigus Disease Area Index (PDAI) activity score of 0 (on a scale of 0 to 250, with higher scores indicating greater disease severity), for at least 16 weeks without the use of glucocorticoids.

Rituximab is an effective treatment in patients with pemphigus vulgaris and demonstrates a steroid-sparing effect.

Background: Corticosteroids (CS) with or without adjuvant immunosuppressant agents are standard treatment for pemphigus vulgaris (PV). The efficacy of adjuvant therapies in minimizing steroid-related adverse events (AEs) is unproven.

Objectives: To utilize data collected in a French investigator-initiated, phase III, open-label, randomized controlled trial to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of rituximab and seek approval for its use in PV.

A passive-flow microfluidic device for imaging latent HIV activation dynamics in single T cells.

Quantifying cell-to-cell variability in drug response dynamics is important when evaluating therapeutic efficacy. For example, optimizing latency reversing agents (LRAs) for use in a clinical "activate-and-kill" strategy to purge the latent HIV reservoir in patients requires minimizing heterogeneous viral activation dynamics. To evaluate how heterogeneity in latent HIV activation varies across a range of LRAs, we tracked drug-induced response dynamics in single cells via live-cell imaging using a latent HIV-GFP reporter virus in a clonal Jurkat T cell line.

Myelin staining of deep white matter in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and unipolar major depression.

Neuroimaging and postmortem studies suggest the involvement of white matter disease in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and unipolar major depression. To date there is no published, collective study of myelin staining in these three psychiatric disorders. Deep white matter lesions, potentially affecting corticolimbic circuits, have been particularly implicated in late life depression and poor outcome bipolar disorder.

Inhibition of clinically relevant mutant variants of HIV-1 by quinazolinone non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors.

A series of 4-alkenyl and 4-alkynyl-3, 4-dihydro-4-(trifluoromethyl)-2-(1H)-quinazolinones were found to be potent non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1). The 4-alkenyl-3, 4-dihydro-4-(trifluoromethyl)-2-(1H)-quinazolinones DPC 082 and DPC 083 and the 4-alkynyl-3, 4-dihydro-4-(trifluoromethyl)-2-(1H)-quinazolinones DPC 961 and DPC 963 were found to exhibit low nanomolar potency toward wild-type RF virus (IC(90) = 2.0, 2.