Rheum Dis Clin North Am
May 2024
Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) are a cornerstone adjuvant treatment of many hormone receptor-positive breast cancers, and nearly half of women taking aromatase inhibitors suffer from AI-induced arthralgia (AIA), also known as AI-associated musculoskeletal syndrome (AIMSS), for which there are limited evidence-based treatments. Pharmacologic management and complementary methods including supplements, exercise, physical therapy, yoga, acupuncture, and massage have all shown mixed results. Comprehensive diet and lifestyle strategies are understudied in AIA/AIMSS despite their disease-modifying effects across many chronic conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Climate change poses a risk of health catastrophes and must be expeditiously addressed across the health care sector. Physicians are considered trustworthy and are well positioned to discuss climate change with patients. A unified strategy by all U.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImmune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have revolutionized the treatment of several advanced malignancies leading to durable remission in a subset of patients. Their rapidly expanding use has led to an increased frequency of immune-related adverse events (irAEs). The pathogenesis of irAEs is poorly understood but may involve aberrant activation of T cells leading to inflammatory cytokine release or production of pathogenic antibodies leading to organ damage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To evaluate fenebrutinib, an oral and highly selective non-covalent inhibitor of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Methods: Patients with RA and inadequate response to methotrexate (cohort 1, n=480) were randomized to fenebrutinib (50 mg once daily, 150 mg once daily, 200 mg twice daily), 40 mg adalimumab every other week, or placebo. Patients with RA and inadequate response to tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (cohort 2, n=98) received fenebrutinib (200 mg twice daily) or placebo.
Fenebrutinib (GDC-0853) is an orally administered small molecule inhibitor of Bruton's tyrosine kinase being investigated for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in patients with inadequate responses to methotrexate (MTX). This study interrogated the potential for pharmacokinetic drug interactions between fenebrutinib and MTX. Eighteen healthy male subjects were enrolled in the study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Treat Options Oncol
June 2019
The thymus is a key organ involved in establishing central immune tolerance. Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) include thymomas and thymic carcinomas. Thymomas, which are histologically distinct from thymic carcinomas, lead to dysregulated thymopoiesis via decreased thymic epithelial expression of AIRE and MHC Class II, as well as via alterations in thymic architecture, thereby resulting in autoimmune complications that manifest as paraneoplastic disorders (PNDs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The outcome of participants with nephrotic syndrome in clinical trials of lupus nephritis has not been studied in detail.
Methods: Collated data from two randomised controlled trials in lupus nephritis, Lupus Nephritis Assessment of Rituximab (LUNAR) and A Study to Evaluate Ocrelizumab in Patients With Nephritis due to Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (BELONG) were analysed. Nephrotic syndrome was defined as albumin <3 g/dL and urine protein/creatinine ratio ≥3.
Background And Objectives: Incomplete peripheral blood B cell depletion after rituximab in lupus nephritis might correlate with inability to reduce tubulointerstitial lymphoid aggregates in the kidney, which together could be responsible for inadequate response to treatment. We utilized data from the Lupus Nephritis Assessment with Rituximab (LUNAR) study to characterize the variability of peripheral blood B cell depletion after rituximab and assess its association with complete response in patients with lupus nephritis.
Design, Setting, Participants, & Measurements: We analyzed 68 participants treated with rituximab.
GDC-0853 is a small molecule inhibitor of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) that is highly selective and noncovalent, leading to reversible binding. In double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled phase I healthy volunteer studies, GDC-0853 was well tolerated, with no dose-limiting adverse events (AEs) or serious AEs. The maximum tolerated dose was not reached during dose escalation (≤600 mg, single ascending dose (SAD) study; ≤250 mg twice daily (b.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Scleroderma is a genetically complex autoimmune disease with substantial phenotypic heterogeneity. Previous genome-wide association studies have identified common genetic variants associated with disease risk, but these studies are not designed to capture rare or potential causal variants. Our goal was to identify rare as well as common genetic variants in patients with diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (dcSSc) through whole-exome sequencing (WES) in order to identify potential causal variants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Lung disease is the leading cause of death in systemic sclerosis (SSc). The diagnosis of SSc-related lung disease (SSc-LD) is often a contraindication to lung transplantation (LT) due to concerns that extrapulmonary involvement will yield worse outcomes. We sought to evaluate posttransplantation outcomes in persons with SSc-LD with esophageal involvement compared with persons with nonconnective tissue disease-related interstitial lung disease (nCTD-ILD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIncreased airway smooth muscle (ASM) contractility and the development of airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) are cardinal features of asthma, but the signaling pathways that promote these changes are poorly understood. Tyrosine phosphorylation is tightly regulated by the opposing actions of protein tyrosine kinases and phosphatases, but little is known about whether tyrosine phosphatases influence AHR. Here, we demonstrate that genetic inactivation of receptor-like protein tyrosine phosphatase J (Ptprj), which encodes CD148, protected mice from the development of increased AHR in two different asthma models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The clinical significance of circulating autoantibodies in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is unclear. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency and clinical significance of circulating autoantibodies in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Methods: We measured an extensive panel of autoantibodies (including rheumatoid factor, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide, and anti-nuclear antibodies by immunofluorescence) associated with connective tissue disease or vasculitis in a cohort of well-characterized patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (n = 67).
Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a commonly encountered complication of systemic sclerosis (SSc) and accounts for a significant proportion of SSc-associated morbidity and mortality. Its pathogenesis remains poorly understood, and therapies that treat SSc ILD are suboptimal, at best. SSc ILD pathogenesis may share some common mechanisms with other fibrotic lung diseases, in which dysregulation of lung epithelium can contribute to pathologic fibrosis via recruitment or in situ generation and activation of fibroblasts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInnate immune cells must be able to distinguish between direct binding to microbes and detection of components shed from the surface of microbes located at a distance. Dectin-1 (also known as CLEC7A) is a pattern-recognition receptor expressed by myeloid phagocytes (macrophages, dendritic cells and neutrophils) that detects β-glucans in fungal cell walls and triggers direct cellular antimicrobial activity, including phagocytosis and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In contrast to inflammatory responses stimulated upon detection of soluble ligands by other pattern-recognition receptors, such as Toll-like receptors (TLRs), these responses are only useful when a cell comes into direct contact with a microbe and must not be spuriously activated by soluble stimuli.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSystemic sclerosis (SSc), also known as scleroderma, is a rare connective tissue disease characterized by vascular and immune dysfunction, leading to fibrosis that can damage multiple organs. Its pathogenesis is complex and poorly understood. Two major clinical subtypes are the limited and diffuse forms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe receptor-type protein tyrosine phosphatase (RPTP) CD148 is thought to have an inhibitory function in signaling and proliferation in nonhematopoietic cells. However, its role in the immune system has not been thoroughly studied. Our analysis of CD148 loss-of-function mice showed that CD148 has a positive regulatory function in B cells and macrophages, similar to the role of CD45 as a positive regulator of Src family kinases (SFKs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGranulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) promotes the survival, proliferation, and differentiation of myeloid lineage cells and regulates chemotaxis and adhesion. However, mice in which the genes encoding GM-CSF (Gmcsf) or the beta common subunit of the GM-CSF receptor (betac) are inactivated display normal steady-state hematopoiesis. Here, we show that host GM-CSF signaling strongly modulates the ability of donor hematopoietic cells to radioprotect lethally irradiated mice.
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