Active clinical trials for "Inflammation"

This study examines how a fermentable dietary fibre known to promote butyrate production impacts intestinal barrier function, intestinal microbiota, intestinal inflammation, and gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with microscopic colitis.

The Trial Assessing Light-Intensity Exercise on the Health of Older Breast Cancer Survivors pilot randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the efficacy of a home-based, light-intensity physical activity intervention among 56 obese, older adult breast cancer survivors, in comparison to a usual care control condition.

The purpose of this research is to measure the extent of lung inflammation between different groups of participants using a radioactive tracer called [18F]NOS. A radioactive tracer is a type of imaging drug that is labeled with a radioactive tag and injected into the body.

Immunology combined to neurobiology now offer prominent tools to yield biomarkers, so far missing in psychiatry, and to design innovative treatment approaches based on the discovery of new molecular and cellular targets. As Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia are now known to be significantly associated with neuro-inflammation, the project I-GIVE will combine multidisciplinary approaches (clinical, viral, immunological, genetic) to explore a global hypothesis placing the Human Endogenous Retro-Virus, HERV-W, at the crossroads between susceptibility to environmental factors (such as winter-spring births, infections, urbanicity…) and genetic factors controlling immune responses. Thus I-GIVE will allow identification of new biomarkers and their correlation with clinical profiles and immuno-inflammatory/immuno-genetic markers, and description of patho-physiological mechanisms of a psychiatric disorder. In addition, I-GIVE should help to design innovative treatments and foster personalized psychiatry tailored to the needs of each patient. Notably, monoclonal antibodies anti-HERV-W Env will be assessed in a preclinical model for their ability to slow, stop, or even reverse the progression of the psychosis in patients. I-GIVE project should thus lead to major results that will have strong impacts on the scientific community, pharmaceutical industries and, in a longer term, on improvement of patients suffering Bipolar Disorder or Schizophrenia and their family.

The immune system helps prevent illness, fights off infections, and repairs damaged tissues following an injury. However, when immune cells remain active for prolonged periods of time - a state known as "chronic inflammation" - they can contribute to the development and progression of chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes. Exercise can reduce the risk of developing many of these diseases and at least part of the health benefits of exercise are due to the ability of exercise to reduce "chronic inflammation". The inflammation-lowering effects of exercise are typically captured by measuring hormone-like molecules released from immune cells called "cytokines" in the blood. In addition to changes in circulating cytokine levels, exercise may also alter how immune cells respond to these cytokines. How exercise intensity (i.e., how hard you are working during exercise) and pattern (i.e., exercising as a long continuous bout or in short intervals) impact the ability of immune cells to respond to cytokines is not well understood. A better understanding of how exercise intensity and pattern of exercise for reducing chronic inflammation may help determine the best types of exercises for improving health and preventing chronic diseases.

A randomized, double blind, study of dronabinol as a palliative agent in the treatment of pain, inflammation, and other complications of sickle cell disease (SCD).

This study explores the effects of probiotic administration on the outcomes of surgical treatment, and also on the state of the intestinal microbiota and the intestinal barrier. The study protocol is designed as a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial. Patients qualified for bariatric surgery will be randomized to receive probiotics or a placebo for 12 weeks. Researchers are going to evaluate changes in intestinal microbiota, epithelial permeability, weight loss, postoperative complications, and serum parameters reflecting inflammation, metabolic profile, and metabolic endotoxemia.

Respiratory viral infections cause significant illness, especially in vulnerable individuals and is a topic of immense significance during the current COVID-19 global pandemic. Respiratory diseases such as asthma involve inflammation of the airways and viruses are a major cause of asthma attacks. The nose is easier to access than the lungs but has similar cells and is therefore useful to study immune responses throughout the respiratory tract. Rather than study the effects of a live virus on the immune system, it is possible to give a component or mimic of a virus to simulate an infection in a similar but more straightforward manner, without causing disease. In this study we will use a nasal spray containing a sterile substance called Resiquimod (also called R848) to mimic a viral infection. Resiquimod does not contain any living organisms and therefore there is no possibility of developing a real infection. Resiquimod works by binding to receptors in cells that line the inside of the nose (epithelial cells) as well as cells that can fight infection (immune cells). These cells respond to Resiquimod and cause mild inflammation in the nose, similar to a mild cold. We can then take samples to measure this response and investigate how it differs between individuals. This will help us better understand how the human immune system responds to viruses, and which cells and molecules the body uses to defend itself against infection.

A large body of evidence on depression heterogeneity point to an "immunometabolic" subtype characterized by the clustering of immunometabolic dysregulations with atypical behavioral symptoms related to energy homeostasis. Motivational and motor impairments reflected by symptoms of anhedonia and psychomotor retardation in major depression are closely related to alterations in energy homeostasis, are associated with increased inflammation, and may be a direct consequence of the impact of inflammatory cytokines on the dopamine system in the brain. In the proposed project, the investigators will examine the effect of dopamine stimulation on motivation and motor function in patients with major depression and healthy controls and the role of inflammation using a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, cross-over design. If successful, this study would provide crucial evidence that pharmacologic strategies that increase dopamine may effectively treat inflammation-related symptoms of anhedonia and psychomotor retardation in major depression.

This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of the influenza vaccine will shed important light on how the immune system responds to different positive and negative social experiences. Building on the nuanced animal literature showing that, while animals exposed to an inflammatory challenge show reductions in social exploration consistent with the sickness behavior of social withdrawal, they actually show increases in social engagement behavior during interactions with a cage mate or pair-bonded animal. The present study will examine if a mild inflammatory challenge (receipt of the influenza vaccine) leads to change in actual social behavior in interactions, specifically toward a stranger and separately, toward a close friend. This study will also build on foundational animal research showing that an inflammatory challenge leads to social defeat behaviors in animals.