Active clinical trials for "Myositis"

Background: Myositis is a rare disease in which the body s immune cells attack the muscle tissue. It can cause muscle weakness, swelling, and pain. It can develop in people with no history of muscle problems. Environmental exposures may determine who develops myositis. Genes may also affect development of the disease. Some people who serve in the military develop myositis. However, other military personnel do not. Researchers want to compare military personnel with and without myositis. They will look for common factors that might have led to the disease. Objectives: - To study environmental risk factors for myositis in military personnel. Eligibility: Military personnel who developed myositis during their period of service. Healthy military personnel who do not have myositis or another autoimmune disease. Design: Participants will have a physical exam and medical history. Participants will fill out forms about environmental exposures, particularly while in the military. The questions will ask about past infections, vaccines and medications, and personal habits. They will also ask about participants occupations during military service and their deployments. Participants will also provide blood samples for study. No treatment will be provided as part of this study.

Myositis is a disease, believed to be due to immune cells, cells which normally protect the body, but are now attacking the muscles and other organ systems within body. As a result, the affected muscles and organs fail to work properly causing weakness, difficulty swallowing, skin rash, respiratory problems, heart problems, joint stiffness, soft tissue calcification and vasculitis (blood circulation problems). The likelihood of progression of this disease is high. This study is designed to examine whether treating patients with high dose cyclophosphamide (a drug which reduces the function of the immune system) and ATG (a protein that kills the immune cells that are thought to be causing this disease), followed by return of previously collected blood stem cells will stop the progression of myositis.

Sporadic Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM) is the most frequent inflammatory myopathy in patients over 50. It is a slowly progressive, but today untreatable (notably by classical immunosuppressants) disease. Rapamycin used in organ transplantation blocks the activity of T effector cells, preserves T regulatory cells and induces autophagy (protein degradation), all parameters impaired during IBM. RAPAMI is a prospective, randomised, controlled, double blind, monocentric, phase IIb trial evaluating rapamycine against placebo.

This study is an open-label, long-term study for those patients who participated in the prior proof-of-concept protocol, in which the preliminary efficacy for BYM338 in patients with sIBM was demonstrated after a single 30 mg/kg i.v. dose of BYM338. This study is designed to confirm the efficacy, safety and tolerability of BYM338 in sIBM with long-term dosing. However due to lack of efficacy in patients with sIBM, the study was terminated early.

Antisynthetase syndrome (ASyS) is a rare and heteregeneous overlapping connective tissue disease, characterized by myositis, interstitial lung disease (ILD), joint involvement, Raynaud's phenomenon and cutaneous manifestations ("mechanic's hands"). Over 50% of patients develop ILD, which is the leading cause of death. The role of neutrophils - innate immune cells involved in inflammatory processes and induced in particular by cytokines of the Th17 pathway - during AS is unknown. Direct pathogenic role of neutrophils has been described during idiopathic inflammatory myopathies, with an increase of netosis correlated with disease activity and muscle damage. During ASyS, a higher number of alveolar neutrophils has been observed in patients with rapidly progressive ILD. There are few data on the specific evaluation of circulating neutrophils in ASyS. Investigators suppose that circulating neutrophils level could represent a simple and accessible severity biomarker in patients with ASyS. The main objective is to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the circulating neutrophils level (> 7000/mm3) at diagnosis on ASyS severity. The secondary objectives are: to define a threshold for circulating neutrophils levels at diagnosis allowing to predict ASyS severity and to assess the diagnostic performance of this threshold. to study the correlation between the level of circulating neutrophils and ASyS severity at diagnosis of the disease. to compare the circulating neutrophils level at ASyS diagnosis and after 1 year of treatment. to compare patients characteristics according to ASyS severity at diagnosis. to compare BAL fluid neutrophils level according to ILD severity at ASyS diagnosis in patients with ILD.

This study evaluated the efficacy, safety and tolerability of multiple doses of bimagrumab/BYM338 vs placebo, when administered intravenously (i.v.), on physical function, muscle strength, and mobility in patients with sporadic inclusion body myositis (sIBM).

The objective of this study is to assess the safety and tolerability of sifalimumab in adult participants with active systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or active dermatomyositis (DM) or polymyositis (PM) who participated in the following clinical studies: MI-CP151, MI-CP152, or MI-CP179.

The traditional treatment of inflammatory myopathies (IM) and generalized myasthenia gravis (MG) is immunosuppressive therapy, usually beginning with corticosteroids. However, up to 70% of treated patients show an incomplete response, including 10 - 30% who are unresponsive. Corticosteroids and other immunosuppressive therapies presented also many side effects. We propose to evaluate in a pilot, open, prospective, multicentric, phase II study, the interest of rituximab in the treatment of patients with primary IM associated with specific AAb (anti-synthetase and anti-SRP AAbs), or MG (with anti-AchR AAbs), refractory to conventional therapies. Twenty fourth patients with primary IM (12 with anti-synthetase, 12 with anti-SRP AAbs), and 12 with MG will be included in the study.

This study will examine the safety and effectiveness of alemtuzumab (Campath® (Registered Trademark)) for improving muscle strength in patients with sporadic inclusion body myositis (s-IBM). The most common inflammatory muscle disease in people over the age of 50, s-IBM progresses steadily, leading to severe weakness and wasting of the muscles in the arms and legs. The cause of s-IBM is not known, but it may be an autoimmune disease, in which the body's immune cells (white blood cells) attack and destroy parts of muscle. Alemtuzumab is a laboratory-made antibody currently approved to treat certain leukemias. It has also been used to treat patients with autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, vasculitis, multiple sclerosis, and tissue rejection associated with transplantation. Alemtuzumab destroys white blood cells that have a protein called CD52 on their surface and that might be among the cells attacking muscle. Patients with s-IBM are eligible for this study. Candidates are screened with physical and neurological examinations, blood tests, and an electrocardiogram. Participants undergo the following tests and procedures: Campath administration: Patients are admitted to the NIH Clinical Center for 1 to 1-1/2 weeks for intravenous infusions of Campath, given every other day for a total of 4 infusions. Follow-up visits after infusions: Patients are monitored for up to 1 year with periodic blood tests, physical and neurological examinations, medical history, muscle strength measurements, and a review of symptoms, including the ability to perform daily living activities. Lymphapheresis: Patients undergo this procedure for collecting large numbers of white blood cells twice - once at the beginning of the study and again after 6 months. Blood is removed through a needle in an arm vein and flows through a machine that separates it into its components by centrifugation (spinning). The white cells and plasma are removed and the red cells and platelets are returned to the patients through the same needle or through another needle in the other arm. Muscle biopsy: Muscle biopsies are done in the operating room under local anesthetic. A small incision is made in the thigh or upper arm and a small piece of muscle is removed. Biopsies are done at the beginning of the study and again after 6 months.

Inflammatory myopathies are a group of muscle diseases characterized by muscle weakness, high levels of muscle enzymes in the blood, and inflammation of the tissue surrounding muscle fibers (endomysium). The diseases making up the inflammatory myopathies are grouped into three subsets: I) Polymyositis (PM) II) Dermatomyositis (DM) III) Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM) Inflammatory myopathies are thought to be autoimmune processes and are treated with steroids and immunosuppressive drugs. However, many patients who initially respond to these treatments develop resistance to the therapy or experience side effects causing the treatments to be stopped. Researchers believe that intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) may provide patients with PM, DM, and IBM a safer and more effective alternative to standard therapies for the diseases. IVIg is a drug that has been used successfully to treat other immune-related diseases of the nervous system. The study will take 60 patients and divide them into two groups. Group one will receive 2 injections of IVIg once a month for three months. Group two will receive 2 injections of placebo "inactive injection of sterile water" once a month for three months. Following the three months of treatment, group one will begin taking the placebo and group two will begin taking IVIg for an additional 3 months. The drug will be considered effective if patients receiving it experience a significant improvement (>15%) in muscle strength.