View clinical trials related to Immunosuppression.
Filter by:Current standard prophylactic immunosuppression in renal transplantation includes tacrolimus, a calcineurin inhibitor, dosed twice daily. In Canada, oral tacrolimus has been available as a twice daily formulation marketed as Prograf® since 1997. It has recently become available in an extended release formulation called Advagraf®, which is dosed once daily. Advagraf® has been demonstrated to be therapeutically equivalent to Prograf® in the renal transplant maintenance population, and as a result it has been is approved as an alternative to the twice daily formulation in these patients. There is an evolving and expanding positive clinical experience with Advagraf® in kidney transplantation and it has shown to be preferred by many patients, due to the diminished dosing frequency. In clinical trials, Advagraf® has been shown to have other potential benefits over Prograf® such as less inter and intra-patient variability, improved cardiovascular profiles, and improved kidney function. Compared to Prograf®, Advagraf® also has a lower Cmin or 'trough' concentration as well as a lower Cmax or 'peak' concentration. The purpose of this study is to convert stabilized renal transplant patients currently receiving Prograf® to Advagraf®, to investigate these potential therapeutic benefits. The Framingham Risk Score and the Reynold's Risk Score are currently recommended by the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) to predict 10-year cardiovascular risk in the general population. Surrogate markers are widely used in clinical trials to shorten follow-up durations. In this study, the investigators will use the Framingham Risk Score and Reynold's Risk Score to quantify changes in estimated cardiovascular risk. The investigators also intend to examine novel inflammatory markers to investigate cardiovascular risk. The investigators hypothesize that the more consistent drug exposure and lower Cmax noted with Advagraf® will decrease Framingham Risk Score, Reynolds Risk score as well as markers of inflammation in kidney transplant recipients.
This study is being done with the purpose of trying to understand if and why transplant recipients may develop tolerance to their transplanted organ. Tolerance means being able to lower or take away immunosuppression (anti-rejection medications) without causing organ rejection.
The primary objective of this study is to assess the efficacy of immunosuppression withdrawal (ISW) in pediatric liver transplant (tx) recipients.
Background: - Gum disease is a condition in which the tissue around the tooth root becomes swollen and infected. This condition can cause tooth loss if it is not treated. Who gets gum disease and how bad it will be depends on (1) the different bacteria in the mouth and (2) how the immune system of an individual handles these bacteria. Researchers want to look at the oral bacteria and genetic immune problems of different people to learn how these affect gum disease and other conditions of the mouth. Objectives: - To study how immune system problems may lead to problems in the mouth, including gum disease. Eligibility: - Children and adults at least 7 years of age who have genetic problems with their immune system. - Healthy adults that have periodontal disease - Health adults that do not have periodontal disease Design: - This study will involve a screening visit and a study visit. - Participants will be screened with a medical history, blood work and a full oral and dental exam, including dental x-rays and photos. - The study visit will involve collection of blood, urine, and other samples, including saliva, plaque, and gum swabs. Any abnormal tissue will sampled for a biopsy. Additional oral and dental exams will be performed. Participants will also answer questions about any current medical or dental problems.
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the efficacy and safety in the use of everolimus, with its onset after 3 months of treatment with calcineurin inhibitor.
The purpose of the study is to compare efficacy and safety of two different immunosuppressive regimens for prevention of bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) (chronic lung allograft rejection)after lung transplantation: tacrolimus versus cyclosporine, both in combination with mycophenolate mofetil and steroids. The study was powered to detect a 15% reduction in BOS in tacrolimus treated patients. Study design: open-label, randomized, comparative, multi-center, investigator driven
This study is designed to evaluate the tolerability of Myfortic®/Simulect® combination in diabetic patients in a steroid free regimen. Due to the diverse ethnicity of our transplant recipient population, the study will determine any different responses, including autoimmunity, between Hispanic, and Caucasian, patients.
Background: - Corticosteroids have been used to treat inflammation and immune system diseases for decades. However, despite their widespread use, there is little information on the specifics of how corticosteroids affect the immune system in humans. The Center for Human Immunology, Autoimmunity, and Inflammatory Diseases is interested in studying how the steroid hormone hydrocortisone affects the immune system in healthy volunteers, and in doing so to understand how hydrocortisone given at different doses works in treating many immune and inflammatory conditions. Objectives: - To evaluate the effects of hydrocortisone on the immune and inflammatory responses of healthy volunteers over the short and intermediate term (up to 28 days after administration). Eligibility: - Healthy volunteers at least 18 years of age. Design: - Participants will be screened with a full medical history and physical examination, and blood and urine tests. At this visit, participants will be separated into two groups, with each group scheduled to receive a different amount of hydrocortisone during the study visit. - One week before the study visit, participants will provide a blood sample for baseline testing. - Participants will be admitted for a 24-hour inpatient stay that will involve frequent blood draws. Between blood draws, participants will be able to work, watch TV, walk around, and so on, and will be provided with regular meals. - Blood will be drawn 1 hour before the infusion of hydrocortisone. Participants will be divided into two further sets of groups with different blood draw schedules: - Groups 1 (lower dose) and 2 (higher dose) will have blood draws 1, 4, 8, 12, and 24 hours after the hydrocortisone infusion. - Groups 3 (lower dose) and 4 (higher dose) will have multiple blood draws over 24 hours, with timing based on data from the previous groups blood test results. - Participants will provide additional blood samples 7 and 28 days after the in-patient visit....
Background: Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV are leading causes of disease and death in Subsaharan Africa. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) dramatically improves prognosis in HIV infection, but TB is still a common complication in HIV-infected subjects. Management of TB-HIV co-infection is complex, both with regard to diagnosis and treatment. Since scaling-up of ART requires management of most patients in primary health care, it is critical to achieve better strategies for TB-HIV co-infection at peripheral levels of the health care system in endemic regions. This includes development of new methods to assess the severity of HIV disease and the need to start ART during TB treatment in this population. Aims: To compare a scoring system for clinical signs of immunosuppression with CD4 cell counts to assess HIV disease severity and indications for ART initiation, and to correlate immunosuppression status with treatment outcome. Workplan: CD4 cell levels and results of clinical scoring has been compared in 1100 patients with TB, using HIV-negative subjects with TB treatment for control. Inclusion was closed in February 2012, and follow-up of participants completed in August 2012. Plasma levels of immune activation and inflammatory markers will be correlated with the degree of immunosuppression. Significance: TB is the most significant clinical challenge to the successful scaling-up of ART in Africa. In order to improve management in primary health care it is necessary to find robust and reliable techniques for determining disease severity and identification of patients who need to start ART during TB treatment. This study may contribute to increased knowledge in this field and help to modify guidelines for management of TB-HIV co-infection in Ethiopia as well as in other resource-limited settings.
Currently, acute kidney injury is diagnosed by increased serum creatinine. However, creatinine is not a reliable marker for acute changes in renal function. The biology of the renal graft is influenced by chemokines from reperfusion (just after the kidney transplant) and throughout its course, when acute and chronic inflammatory changes occurs. Moreover, the evaluation of changes in urinary cytokines reflects kidney interstitial patterns, and can predict renal function, acute rejection episodes and their response to treatment. Today there are several studies comparing the relative immunosuppression of renal function, but few noticed its relationship with cytokines and chemokines. Thus, we proposed studying the inflammatory consequences of early calcineurin inhibitors (ICN) withdrawing in transplant patients by urine analysis. Kidney biopsy was done before ICN withdrawn and replaced by everolimus (3 months after transplant), and 1 year after transplant.