Influenza-like illness in individuals treated with immunosuppressants, biologics, and/or systemic corticosteroids for autoimmune or chronic inflammatory disease: A crowdsourced cohort study, France, 2017-2018.

Background: Influenza-like illness (ILI) incidence estimates in individuals treated with immunosuppressants and/or biologics and/or corticosteroid for an autoimmune or chronic inflammatory disease are scarce. We compared the ILI incidence among immunocompromised population and the general population.

Method: We conducted a prospective cohort study during the 2017-2018 seasonal influenza epidemic, on the GrippeNet.

Management of severe renal disease in anti-neutrophil-cytoplasmic-antibody-associated vasculitis: the place of rituximab and plasma exchange?

Objective: The optimal induction therapy for severe glomerulonephritis of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) is debated. We compared the efficacy of glucocorticoid and rituximab (RTX) or CYC induction therapy for severe AAV-related glomerulonephritis and evaluated the potential benefit of plasma exchange (PE) as adjunct therapy to CYC.

Methods: This retrospective, multicentre study included AAV patients with severe renal active disease (serum creatinine level ≥350 µmol/l and/or estimated glomerular filtration ratio ≤15 ml/min/1.

Tocilizumab for Severe Worsening COVID-19 Pneumonia: a Propensity Score Analysis.

Background: High levels of serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) correlate with disease severity in COVID-19. We hypothesized that tocilizumab (a recombinant humanized anti-IL-6 receptor) could improve outcomes in selected patients with severe worsening COVID-19 pneumonia and high inflammatory parameters.

Methods: The TOCICOVID study included a prospective cohort of patients aged 16-80 years with severe (requiring > 6 L/min of oxygen therapy to obtain Sp02 > 94%) rapidly deteriorating (increase by ≥ 3 L/min of oxygen flow within the previous 12 h) COVID-19 pneumonia with ≥ 5 days of symptoms and C-reactive protein levels > 40 mg/L.

Vasculitis associated with myelodysplastic syndrome and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia: French multicenter case-control study.

Introduction: Our objective was to evaluate characteristics, treatment and outcome of vasculitis associated with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and chronic myelomonicytic leukemia (CMML) PATIENTS AND METHODS: Retrospective descriptive analysis of MDS/CMML-related vasculitis and comparison with MDS/CMML patients without dysimmune features.

Results: Seventy patients with vasculitis and MDS/CMML were included, with median age of 71.5 [21-90] years and male/female ratio of 2.

Gastrointestinal Behcet's-like disease with myelodysplastic neoplasms with trisomy 8: a French case series and literature review.

We report the 11 cases of +8-MDS/MPN associated with Behcet's-like syndrome and compare them with Behcet's disease and Crohn's disease, pool with literature cases for analysis. Data for patients with +8-MDS/MPN and Behçet's-like syndrome were collected from MINHEMON. Eleven patients had Behcet's-like syndrome and +8-MDS/MPN (median age 75 years [IQR 65-87]; M/F ratio 0.

Inflammatory disorders associated with trisomy 8-myelodysplastic syndromes: French retrospective case-control study.

Objective: We report cases of myelodysplastic syndrome/myeloproliferative neoplasms (MDS/MPN) with trisomy 8 associated with inflammatory and autoimmune diseases (IADs).

Method: Data for 21 patients with trisomy 8-MDS/MPN and IADs were analyzed and compared to 103 patients with trisomy 8-MDS/MPN without IADs.

Results: The median age of MDS/MPN patients with IADs was 67 [59-80].

OX40L blockade protects against inflammation-driven fibrosis.

Treatment for fibrosis represents a critical unmet need, because fibrosis is the leading cause of death in industrialized countries, and there is no effective therapy to counteract the fibrotic process. The development of fibrosis relates to the interplay between vessel injury, immune cell activation, and fibroblast stimulation, which can occur in various tissues. Immunotherapies have provided a breakthrough in the treatment of immune diseases.

Pan PPAR agonist IVA337 is effective in prevention and treatment of experimental skin fibrosis.

Background: The pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis (SSc) involves a distinctive triad of autoimmune, vascular and inflammatory alterations resulting in fibrosis. Evidence suggests that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) play an important role in SSc-related fibrosis and their agonists may become effective therapeutic targets.

Objective: To determine the expression of PPARs in human fibrotic skin and investigate the effects of IVA337, a pan PPAR agonist, in in vitro and in vivo models of fibrosis.

Treatment with abatacept prevents experimental dermal fibrosis and induces regression of established inflammation-driven fibrosis.

Objective: Activated T cells are the main component of the inflammatory skin infiltrates that characterise systemic sclerosis (SSc). Our aim was to investigate the efficacy of abatacept, which tempers T-cell activation, in reducing skin fibrosis in complementary mouse models of SSc.

Methods: The antifibrotic properties of abatacept were evaluated in the mouse models of bleomycin-induced dermal fibrosis and sclerodermatous chronic graft-versus-host disease, reflecting early and inflammatory stages of SSc.

[Kidney and thyroid dysfunction].

Thyroid hormones influence renal development, kidney structure, renal hemodynamics, glomerular filtration rate, the function of many transport systems along the nephron, and sodium and water homeostasis. Effects of hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism on kidney function are the result of direct renal effects, as well as systemic hemodynamic, metabolic, and cardiovascular effects. Most of the renal manifestations of thyroid disorders, which are clinically most significant with hypothyroidism, are reversible with treatment.