Active clinical trials for "Immune System Diseases"

The study team plans to establish a bioregistry of patients receiving biologic therapy as part of their standard treatment at the Mount Sinai Therapeutic Infusion Center and affiliated practices. The study team will to apply state-of-the-art approaches to assessing and predicting immunological and clinical responses associated with these standards and prescribed treatments. The approach is twofold. The first component is to establish a robust and flexible biorepository and database that includes demographic, immunologic, exposure and clinical records, and can facilitate research across disciplines, and across other registries affiliated with Mount Sinai. The second component is to address specific key research questions focused on using novel diagnostics to increase the effectiveness of biologic treatment. Most patients will be recruited from the Mount Sinai Therapeutic Infusion Center (TIC), although others receiving infusions elsewhere or at home will be recruited from outpatient Sinai affiliated clinical practices.

Immunotherapy, especially immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), are effective in treating many different types of cancers. ICIs fight cancer by driving the immune system into an "activated state" that makes it harder for tumor cells to hide and easier for the immune system to destroy them. In doing this, oncologists risk "over activation" where immune cells can cause side effects that could affect any part of the body. These are known as immune related adverse events (irAEs). While irAEs are a known risk of ICIs, scientists and doctors do not understand how they develop, who is more likely to get them, and what is the best way to manage them while still getting the anti-tumor effects from ICIs. The aim of this project is to build an infrastructure for researchers to collaborate in clinical, translational, and basic science research focused on understanding and managing immune related adverse events (irAEs). The investigators will collect research data and samples from patients who receive ICI treatment, including when patients might experience immunotherapy side effects, to store for use in future research studies.

Determination of autoantibodies against fragments derived from neurons, glia, and myelin sheath is instrumental in aiding diagnosis, differential diagnosis, as well as determining disease status of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD), myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD), autoimmune encephalitis (AE). Cell based assay (CBA) has been frequently recommended to detect autoantibodies of neuroantigens in the aforementioned neurological disorders. However, antibodies with low abundance or low affinity often fall beyond the threshold of CBA and pose significant challenges in practice. To this end, the investigators adopted a tyramide signal amplification (TSA) technology with the basis of CBA to improve sensitivity. The preliminary results suggest that this TSA-CBA platform is superior to conventional CBA in registered signals of the titer autoantibodies. In elevating the sensitivity, TSA-CBA also preserves antigen confirmation. This prospective study is launched to compare the sensitivity, specificity, clinical correlation between CBA and CBA-TSA, in determining autoantibodies against aquaporin 4 (AQP4-IgG), myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG-IgG), N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR-IgG) in a multicenter, double-blind setting.

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the ability of placental angiogenesis markers to predict the risk of PE in pregnancy in women with primary APS. To construct reference intervals of placental angiogenesis markers specific to women affected by primary APS in pregnancy by measuring the levels of sFlt-1and PlGF in serum maternal serum and their sFlt-1/PlGF ratio during the trimesters of gestation (I TM, II TM and III TM). For this aim the study will involve recruiting two groups of subjects, one will be cases and one will be controls.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) are among the most promising approaches to fighting cancer. However, a substantial percentage of patients experience off-target adverse effects in the form of mild to severe inflammation in different organs, commonly called immune-related adverse events (irAEs). irAEs can lead to treatment discontinuation, or can be life-threatening in extreme cases. The causes of irAEs are largely unknown and there are no reliable predictive biomarkers. The Montreal Immune-Related Adverse Events (MIRAE) study collects clinical information and biospecimens (blood, tissue, stool) from cancer patients treated with ICI to facilitate research on the identification of predictive biomarkers of irAEs, their causes, and the design of effective management strategies.

This study will investigate how, why and under what conditions eosinophils (a type of white blood cell) become activated and will examine their function in immune reactions. Eosinophil counts often rise in response to allergies, asthma, and parasitic worm infections. They can also go up in uncommon autoimmune conditions and, rarely, in association with tumors. Elevated levels of these cells is called eosinophilia. Usually, eosinophilia causes no apparent symptoms, but in rare cases there may be local swelling and itching, allergic lung problems, heart disease or nerve damage caused by the release of toxic substances in these cells into body tissues. Patients 1 to 100 years of age with eosinophil counts greater than 750/ml or an abnormal accumulation of eosinophils in the skin or body tissues may be eligible for this study. All participants will have a thorough medical history, physical examination and blood tests. Depending on the person's age and symptoms, other diagnostic tests may be done, including specialized studies of the eye, lungs, skin, bone marrow, nerves or heart. This is not a treatment study, and no experimental treatments will be offered. Patients who require treatment will receive standard medical care. Certain other procedures may be requested solely for research purposes. All participants will be asked to donate extra blood for laboratory studies investigating how immune cells and other immune substances in the blood act to stimulate a rise in eosinophils. In addition, some participants may undergo one or more of the following: Annual Follow-up evaluations - Physical examinations and blood tests to evaluate changes in the patient's condition and eosinophil counts over time. Bone marrow biopsy and aspiration will be recommended during the initial evaluation, and in certain patients at other times when it is important to look directly at the newly developing cells in the bone marrow. For this procedure an area of skin and bone is anesthetized with xylocaine (an anesthetic similar to that used by dentists), and a very sharp needle is used to sample the bone marrow for evaluation. Bone marrow biopsy and aspiration can have side effects of pain and/or bleeding into the skin and soft tissues at the site of the procedure. Rarely the area at the biopsy site can become infected, and is treated with antibiotics. Genetic testing: Some of the blood drawn from you as part of this study will be used for genetic tests. Genetic tests can help researchers study how health or illness is passed on to you by your parents or from you to your children. Any genetic information collected or discovered about you or your family will be confidential. Leukapheresis (only patients 18 years and older) to collect large numbers of certain cells - In this procedure, whole blood is collected through a needle placed in an arm vein. The blood circulates through a machine that separates it into its components. The white cells are then removed and the rest of the blood is returned to the body, either through the same needle used to draw the blood or through a second needle placed in the other arm.

The Huizhou mother-infant cohort was set up to investigate the effect of dietary factors and environmental exposures during pregnancy on health consequences of mothers and offsprings in Huizhou, China.

DESIGN Longitudinal prospective observational multicentre study. Primary objective: Understand the immune mechanisms driving COVID-19 disease in patients with a history of lung disease

The purpose of this observational research study is to better understand immune responses to vaccines against viruses (influenza or SARS-CoV2). The goal is to determine any differences in immune responses to vaccines in uninjured people and in people living with spinal cord injuries, who are typically at increased risk of infections.

This study examines an intervention to promote effective, evidence-based care and de-implement inappropriate therapies for COPD in HIV-infected (HIV+) patients. The intervention facilitates specialist support of primary care, which includes infectious disease (ID) physicians who serve as the primary care providers (PCP) for their HIV+ patients in the ID clinic. Rather than relying on referral-driven specialty care which may be a barrier to access, pulmonologists will proactively support ID providers to manage a population of HIV+ patients with COPD, delivering real-time evidence-based recommendations tailored to the individual HIV+ patient in the form of an E-consult.