Active clinical trials for "Inflammation"

The purpose of the study is to assess whether lung ultrasound is able to detect lung injury after lung resection surgery.

This observational study aims to improve our understanding of how legal market cannabis use impacts acute and long-term alcohol use, the microbiota-gut-brain-axis (MGBA), and neurobehavioral alcohol use phenotypes such as impulsivity, impaired cognitive functioning, and craving, among individuals who regularly use both alcohol and cannabis. Over a period of one month, subjects will participate in this three-visit study. Blood samples will be collected to allow for the assessment of inflammatory markers and cannabinoids, a fecal sample will be collected to allow for the analysis of the gut microbiome, and participants will complete cognitive and impulsivity tasks and provide craving ratings during the course of an alcohol self-administration procedure. Subjects will also participate in two 14-day daily diary data collection periods between lab sessions. Daily diary data collection will be used to assess the effects of cannabis use on alcohol use and craving longitudinally.

This observational prospective study will help to determine if an immune process similar to allograft rejection is responsible for the occurrence of an intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP). If so, it would suggest the potential benefit of immunomodulatory therapeutics.

This is a prospective, comparative, open-label, single-center, randomized, investigator-sponsored clinical study and seeks to investigate clinical outcomes with standard of care and high dose DEXTENZA treatment compared to standard of care topical dexamethasone in patients undergoing trabeculectomy, trabeculectomy Ex-PRESS, Xen Gel stent, and Ahmed Valve surgery. Patients will be followed through 6 months. After screening a given patient for inclusion and exclusion criteria, and gaining informed consent, eyes of n=30 patients will be randomized to one of the following two groups (n=15per group) and followed from Baseline through Month 6.

Periodontitis (gum disease) is a chronic inflammatory disease linked to a imbalance of oral microbiome. The most usual treatment involves removal of sub and supra-gingival plaque and calculus otherwise known as Non-surgical periodontal therapy (NSPT). Ample evidence now indicates that Periodontitis and NSPT are linked to both local and systemic inflammation. This in turn also explains the association between periodontitis and a number of systemic diseases including cardiovascular diseases. Vascular endothelium (the innermost lining of blood vessels) exerts protective, anti-inflammatory and anti-clotting functions. As the endothelium ages, and is exposed to the damaging effects of traditional cardiovascular risk factors such as elevated blood pressure, serum cholesterol, glucose and cigarette smoking; these protective properties appear diminished, leading to a state of endothelial dysfunction (ED). Understanding the mechanisms of ED in humans could lead to new therapeutic and/or preventive strategies of CV diseases. Sufficient evidence now suggests that periodontitis and its treatment (removal of sub and supra-gingival plaque and calculus-periodontal therapy) are linked to endothelial dysfunction. Studies have extensively characterized the time-course of a single session of non surgical periodontal treatment (IPT) associated with a one week acute inflammatory response. This substantial inflammatory response is also associated with ED assessed by flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the brachial artery at 24 hrs. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) helps kill the local pathogens, thus preventing their systemic dissemination; which may ultimately reduce the systemic host inflammatory response generated.

Chronic liver disease is a major healthcare problem in Hong Kong and worldwide. The diagnosis of liver fibrosis and inflammation in patients with chronic liver disease has important prognostic and therapeutic implications. The current gold standard to evaluate and stage the severity of liver fibrosis and inflammation is based on liver biopsies, which are invasive and impractical for screening and monitoring the disease. The existing non-invasive methods still have significant limitations to meet the challenge. Magnetic resonance effect can be used to obtain the molecular-level information on the biochemical properties of human tissues. The investigators will develop non-invasive quantitative MRI technologies to evaluate and stage liver fibrosis and inflammation. Our approaches are based on the endogenous contrast mechanism and thus do not need to inject an MRI contrast agent. Our approaches can be implemented on a regular MRI scanner and do not need any extra hardware. To enable the technology for routine clinical use, the investigators will develop fully automated post-processing techniques for the proposed MRI acquisition approaches. The investigators will perform multi-center clinical studies in Hong Kong and mainland China to validate our imaging measurements by histopathologic results from liver biopsies on patient cohorts.

Human resolutive macrophages are essential immune cells in the resolution of inflammation. This particular type of macrophages remains poorly known and currently there are no biomarkers to identify them in vivo. Within UMR1098-RIGHT, specific biomarkers (secreted molecules and membrane receptors) of human resolutive macrophages (healthy volunteers) have been identified in vitro, but their existence in vivo remains an outstanding issue. An exploratory study (lack of data from the literature) will validate the ex vivo expression of these markers in samples of patients whose inflammation is not, or little, supported by the available therapies (NSAIDs, biotherapies, corticosteroids).

There is a compelling need for a noninvasive imaging approach to measure S1P1 in both preclinical models of diseases and humans. PET measures of S1P1 expression is critical for elucidating the pathophysiological roles of S1P1 in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. The relevance of S1P1 in clinical disease has become readily apparent with the FDA approval of the S1P1 modulator FTY720 (fingolimod) for treating relapsing-remitting MS (RR-MS). MS is a chronic autoimmune, inflammatory disease caused by lymphocytic infiltration that leads to demyelinating neurodegenerative disease. The primary objective of the initial IND study is to determine the safety of the [11C]-CS1P1 for PET imaging of S1P1 expression. The investigators will first complete whole-body PET dosimetry studies in healthy adult normal volunteers to calculate the actual radiation dose of each human organ and determine the allowable dose for a human subject when receiving a single dose for a PET scan. Second, complete imaging of the brain and lymph nodes of the neck in a wide range of ages of healthy adult normal control participants, both male and females to characterize [11C]-CS1P1 uptake in the brain and radiolabeled metabolite will be completed. Finally, a comparison of the normal control participants to patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) will be completed.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are a group of novel immunotherapies that boost the body's own defense against the cancer by improving the immune system's ability to recognize and destroy cancer cells. While it is relatively well-documented that conventional cancer treatments (e.g., chemotherapy) are associated with cognitive impairment, virtually nothing is yet known about effects on cognition during and after ICI treatment. Due to significantly improved survival rates after ICI treatments, it becomes important to map possible adverse effects associated with these treatments. The investigators therefore investigate possible changes in cognitive function in a group of cancer patients from prior to ICI treatment to nine months later. A gender- and age- matched healthy control group will serve as a comparison. The study has the potential to broaden our understanding of associations between cognition, the brain, and the immune system and to provide clinically relevant knowledge about possible cognitive impairments associated with immunotherapy.

The global coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) has led to an increased need to wear protective equipment such as wearing face masks and practicing hygiene measures such as more frequent use of antiseptics. These measures can lead to changes in the skin, the development of new inflammatory skin diseases or exacerbation of existing ones, with health professionals especially under the risk of developing these changes. Changes in facial skin due to wearing masks have been observed in a number of studies, however, part of the study was based solely on subjects' self-assessment or clinical assessment, and only a small part on objective measurements of skin parameters. Also, the impact of prolonged masks' use have not been investigated. The aim of these study was to investigate the effects of constant, long-term use of protective masks on facial skin.