Objective and design The aim of this double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase III CORONA clinical trial was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of IL-6 receptor inhibitor levilimab (LVL) in subjects with severe COVID-19. Subjects The study included 217 patients. The eligible were men and non-pregnant women aged 18 years or older, hospitalized for severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Treatment 206 subjects were randomized (1:1) to receive single subcutaneous administration of LVL 324 mg or placebo, both in combination with standard of care (SOC). 204 patients received allocated therapy. After the LVL/placebo administration in case of deterioration of symptoms, the investigator could perform a single open-label LVL 324 mg administration as the rescue therapy. Methods The primary efficacy endpoint was the proportion of patients with sustained clinical improvement on the 7-category ordinal scale on Day 14. All efficacy data obtained after rescue therapy administration were considered missing. For primary efficacy analysis, all subjects with missing data were considered non-responders. Results 63.1% and 42.7% of patients in the LVL and in the placebo groups, respectively, achieved sustained clinical improvement on Day 14 (P = .0017). The frequency of adverse drug reactions was comparable between the groups. Conclusion In patients with radiologically confirmed SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia, requiring or not oxygen therapy (but not ventilation) with no signs of other active infection administration of LVL + SOC results in an increase of sustained clinical improvement rate. Trail registration The trial is registered at the US National Institutes of Health (ClinicalTrials.gov; NCT04397562).
Introduction: Netakimab (NTK), an original humanized anti-interleukin-17 monoclonal antibody, showed therapeutic efficacy in moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis in a phase 2 clinical study. Herein we report the results of 54 weeks of a phase 3 PLANETA trial aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of two NTK regimens vs. placebo. Methods: Two hundred thirteen patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis were randomly assigned to receive NTK 120 mg once every 2 weeks (NTK Q2W), NTK 120 mg once every 4 weeks (NTK Q4W) or placebo. During the first 3 weeks, patients received subcutaneous injections of NTK or placebo (according to the allocation) once a week. Patients in the NTK Q2W group then received NTK at weeks 4, 6, 8 and 10. Subjects in the NTK Q4W group received NTK at weeks 6 and 10 and placebo at weeks 4 and 8. Patients in the placebo group received placebo injections at weeks 4, 6, 8 and 10. Treatment was unblinded at week 12. During the open-label phase, patients in both NTK groups continued to receive NTK Q4W. The primary efficacy endpoint was the proportion of patients in each group who achieved a C 75% reduction from baseline in psoriasis area and severity index (PASI 75) at week 12. Results: A total of 77.7%, 83.3% and 0% of patients had a PASI 75 response at week 12 in the NTK Q2W, NTK Q4W and placebo groups, respectively (P \ 0.0001, Fisher's exact test, ITT). The effect was maintained throughout the 1-year treatment. NTK showed a good safety profile and low immunogenicity. Conclusion: Treatment with NTK results in high rates of sustained clinical response in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. The study is ongoing; thus, long-term use efficacy and safety data are forthcoming.
In this study, we performed an adipogenic differentiation of human adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) in vitro with different deuterium content (natural, low and high) in the culture medium during differentiation process with parallel analysis of the gene expression, metabolic activity and cell viability/ toxicity. After ADSCs differentiation into adipocytes we have done the analysis of differentiation process efficiency and determined a type of resulting adipocytes (by morphology, gene expression, UCP1 protein detection and adipokine production analysis). We have found that high (5 × 10 5 ppm) deuterium content significantly inhibit in vitro adipogenic differentiation of human ADSCs compared to the groups with natural (150 ppm) and low (30 ppm) deuterium content. Importantly, protocol of differentiation used in our study leads to white adipocytes development in groups with natural (control) and high deuterium content, whereas deuterium-depleted differentiation medium leads to brown-like (beige) adipocytes formation. We have also remarked the direct impact of deuterium on the cellular survival and metabolic activity. Interesting, in deuterium depleted-medium, the cells had normal survival rate and high metabolic activity, whereas the inhibitory effect of deuterated medium on ADSCs differentiation at least was partly associated with deuterium cytotoxicity and inhibitory effect on metabolic activity. The inhibitory effect of deuterium on metabolic activity and the subsequent decrease in the effectiveness of adipogenic differentiation is probably associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. Thus, deuterium could be considered as an element that affects the substance chirality. These findings may be the basis for the development of new approaches in the treatment of obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes through the regulation of adipose-derived stem cell differentiation and adipocyte functions. In the 21st century, non-communicable diseases (NCD) like obesity, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) became the main medical problems of the humanity 1-4. These diseases started in the Western world, but in parallel with the improving of human life standards, technological progress and the spread of the Western lifestyle also around the world. So, these diseases have become a global epidemic 5. Currently, although there remains a correlation between the level of economic development and the frequency of these diseases, they have ceased to be a medical problem in high-income countries, but also have become an urgent item for the low-income and middle-income countries 6. A characteristic feature of obesity, metabolic syndrome and T2DM is the defection of glucose and lipids metabolism, which is manifested in insulin resistance, impaired fasting glucose, dyslipidemia, high blood sugar, high serum triglycerides, imbalance of different types of lipoproteins in blood serum 7,8 .
Netakimab (NTK) is a humanized anti-interleukin-17А (IL-17A) monoclonal antibody approved for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, moderate to severe psoriasis. Here, we present the results of the 24-weeks double blind period of the PATERA study.Objective. The objective of the study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of NTK compared to placebo in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA).Patients and methods. 194 patients with active PsA with an inadequate response to previous therapy with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, conventional or biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive subcutaneous 120 mg NTK or placebo at weeks 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 14, 18, 22. At week 16 ACR20 (20% improvement in the American College of Rheumatology response criteria) non-responders in placebo group were reassigned to NTK in a blinded manner. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients achieved ACR20 response at week 24.Results. 82,5% of patients in the NTK group and 9.3% of patients in the placebo group achieved ACR20 at week 24 with the 95% CI [0,63; 0,84] (p < 0,0001). Skin manifestations and axial disease significantly improved with NTK. The safety profile of NTK was comparable to placebo. The most frequent treatment-related AEs were expected and common for all other IL-17 inhibitors: increased alanine aminotransferase (ALT), infections, lymphopenia.Conclusion. NTK in the dose of 120 mg has superior efficacy over placebo in patients with active psoriatic arthritis. The safety profile is consistent with other IL-17 inhibitors.
Non-linear effects of age on white matter integrity are ubiquitous in the brain and indicate that these effects are more pronounced in certain brain regions at specific ages. Box-Cox analysis is a technique to increase the log-likelihood of linear relationships between variables by means of monotonic non-linear transformations. Here we employ Box-Cox transformations to flexibly and parsimoniously determine the degree of non-linearity of age-related effects on white matter integrity by means of model comparisons using a voxel-wise approach. Analysis of white matter integrity in a sample of adults between 20 and 89years of age (n=88) revealed that considerable portions of the white matter in the corpus callosum, cerebellum, pallidum, brainstem, superior occipito-frontal fascicle and optic radiation show non-linear effects of age. Global analyses revealed an increase in the average non-linearity from fractional anisotropy to radial diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and mean diffusivity. These results suggest that Box-Cox transformations are a useful and flexible tool to investigate more complex non-linear effects of age on white matter integrity and extend the functionality of the Box-Cox analysis in neuroimaging.
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