News

Lower glucocorticoid dosing regimen may be risky, study finds

A reduced glucocorticoid dosing regimen for inducing disease remission in people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) may be associated with a higher risk of poor disease outcomes in those with severe disease, compared with the standard-dose regimen. That’s according to a real-world study in France and Luxembourg that involved people…

Enrollment open for trial testing NKX019 cell therapy in AAV

Enrollment is now open for a small clinical trial designed to test dose-escalating doses of experimental cell therapy NKX019 in people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) and other autoimmune disorders. Called Ntrust-2, the study will assess the therapy’s safety and ability to promote long-term disease remissions in an initial group…

EGPA should be considered in patients with severe asthma: Study

Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) should be considered in people with uncontrolled severe asthma and high blood levels of immune cells called eosinophils — a hallmark of the autoimmune disease — according to the findings of a study from Singapore. This rare type of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) was…

Respiratory manifestations common, recurrent in pediatric GPA

Most children with granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) have respiratory manifestations including cough and shortness of breath at diagnosis, and these frequently persist or relapse, according to a study in the U.S. involving 13 pediatric patients. Lung abnormalities were detected in nearly all children with available imaging data at diagnosis…

Variants in SERPINA1 gene may increase risk of death in AAV

People with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) who carry certain variants in SERPINA1 — a gene that’s been previously linked to the autoimmune disease — may have a six times higher risk of death than those without such variants. That’s according to new data from a single-center study in Brazil, in…

Rituximab found as effective as cyclophosphamide in AAV children

Treatment with rituximab in children with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) is at least non-inferior to the use of cyclophosphamide at inducing disease remission or low disease activity among pediatric patients, according to data from a large international observational study. The researchers noted that rituximab treatment was associated with greater…