Autoantibody mediated deficiency of IL-36-receptor antagonist in a subset of patients with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

Objective: Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is known as a seronegative form of spondylarthropathy. The interleukin-36 cytokine family may have a major role in disease pathogenesis and particularly the related cutaneous manifestations. In light of our recent observations on (transient) autoantibody phenotypes neutralizing endogenous anti-inflammatory receptor antagonists (progranulin, IL-1Ra) in different inflammatory conditions, we set out to investigate the potential role of such antibodies targeting IL-36 cytokine family members in PsA and psoriasis without arthritic manifestations (Pso).

Office or home versus 24-h blood pressure measurement in stable kidney transplant recipients.

Background: The aim of this study was to quantify hypertension control and evaluate concordance between all commonly available blood pressure (BP) modalities in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs).

Methods: For this prospective cross-sectional study, 89 stable KTRs were recruited at the Charité Transplant Outpatient Clinic. For each study participant office [manual office BP (MOBP) and automated office BP (AOBP)], 7-day home (HBPM) and 24-hour ambulatory BP (24h-ABPM) measurements were performed.

Autoantibody-Mediated Depletion of IL-1RA in Still's Disease and Potential Impact of IL-1 Targeting Therapies.

Background: Adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) and systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) resemble a continuum of a rare, polygenic IL-1β-driven disease of unknown etiology.

Objective: In the present study we sought to investigate a potential role of recently described autoantibodies neutralizing the interleukin-1(IL-1)-receptor antagonist (IL-1-Ra) in the pathogenesis of Still's disease.

Methods: Serum or plasma samples from Still's disease patients (AOSD, n = 23; sJIA, n = 40) and autoimmune and/or inflammatory disease controls (n = 478) were analyzed for autoantibodies against progranulin (PGRN), IL-1Ra, IL-18 binding protein (IL-18BP), and IL-36Ra, as well as circulating IL-1Ra and IL-36Ra levels by ELISA.

Basin sizes depend on stable eigenvalues in the Kuramoto model.

We show that for the Kuramoto model (with identical phase oscillators equally coupled), its global statistics and size of the basins of attraction can be estimated through the eigenvalues of all stable (frequency) synchronized states. This result is somehow unexpected since, by doing that, one could just use a local analysis to obtain the global dynamic properties. But recent works based on Koopman and Perron-Frobenius operators demonstrate that the global features of a nonlinear dynamical system, with some specific conditions, are somehow encoded in the local eigenvalues of its equilibrium states.

Exponential distribution of lifetimes for transient bursting states in coupled noisy excitable systems.

The phenomenon of transient bursting, caused by additive noise in a set of two coupled FitzHugh-Nagumo oscillators, is studied by direct numerical integration and by measurements in the analog electronic circuit. In the parameter region where the unique global attractor of the deterministic system is the state of rest, introduction of low or moderate intensity fluctuations into the voltage dynamics results in the onset of a transient bursting state: sequences of intermittent bursts (patches of spikes), followed by ultimate relaxation to the equilibrium. Like genuine deterministic bursting, this behavior has its origin in the slow-fast character of the underlying dynamics.