Impact of Treatment-Related Beliefs on Medication Adherence in Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases: Results of the Global ALIGN Study.

Introduction: Medication adherence is critical in chronic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) and could be affected by patients' treatment-related beliefs. The objective of this study was to determine beliefs about systemic medications in patients with IMIDs and to explore the association of those beliefs and other factors with adherence.

Methods: This was a multi-country, cross-sectional, self-administered survey study.

Efalizumab modulates T cell function both in vivo and in vitro.

Background: The anti-CD11a mAb efalizumab has been successfully used in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis. Although peripheral blood leukocytes ubiquitously express LFA-1 (CD11a/CD18), it is assumed that efalizumab exerts its effects primarily on T lymphocytes by blocking migration and by interfering with the immunological synapse.

Objective: To test the latter assumption, we asked whether efalizumab interferes with T cell proliferation induced by qualitatively and quantitatively different stimuli.

T cells co-producing Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific type 1 cytokines for the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis.

Patients treated with tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha-antagonizing medication are at increased risk of developing active tuberculosis (TB), brought about mainly by reactivation of latent infection. Thus, screening for latent TB infection (LTBI) prior to administration of anti-TNF-alpha-therapy is required. For a long time, the tuberculin skin test (TST) was the only means of diagnosing LTBI, however, interferon-gamma-release assays (IGRAs), are promising new tools.

B7-H1 (programmed death-1 ligand) on dendritic cells is involved in the induction and maintenance of T cell anergy.

In an effort to identify immunoregulatory molecules on dendritic cells (DC), we generated and screened for mAbs capable of modulating the T cell stimulatory function of DC. A particularly interesting mAb was mAb DF272. It recognizes monocyte-derived DC, but not blood monocytes or lymphocytes, and has profound immunomodulatory effects on DC.