A pathogen may emerge as an important public health problem because of changes in itself or its transmission pathways. Alternatively, a microorganism may emerge as a pathogen or acquire new public health importance because of changes in host susceptibility to infection. Factors influencing host susceptibility within the population as a whole include increases in the number of immunocompromised ...

Ocular inflammation is a significant cause of ocular morbidity and visual impairment. Topical, periocular, intraocular, and systemic corticosteroids are highly effective for treating appropriate forms of ocular inflammation. However, their use may be constrained by local and/or systemic side effects, especially if long-term therapy is required. As a result, immunosuppressive agents increasingly...

We report a patient with a severe inclusion body myositis (IBM). His illness was unusual in terms of a rapid progression, high creatine kinase levels, and complication with interstitial pneumonia. He responded well to immunosuppressive agents such as corticosteroids, cyclosporin A, cyclophosphamide, and immunoglobulin. The present patient indicates the wide range of the disease, and that immuno...

Corticosteroids (oral or inhaled) are commonly used to treat pulmonary sarcoidosis; however, there is no consensus about when to start treatment, what dose of steroids to give and for how long. Immunosuppressive and cytotoxic agents (used in immunosuppressive doses) are used in addition to oral corticosteroids to treat multisystem and chronic sarcoidosis, or as steroid-sparing agents. We summar...

A 42-year-old woman who underwent renal transplantation from her mother at the age of 26 due to IgA nephropathy had since been treated with immunosuppressive agents, including prednisolone (PSL), azathioprine (AZA) and cyclosporine (CsA). The patient had remained clinically stable for 15 years. However, in the middle of May 2010, she developed bronchial asthma for the first time after performin...

Pyridoxine deficiency leads to impairment of immune responses. It appears that the basic derangement is the decreased rate of production of one-carbon units necessary for the synthesis of nucleic acids. The key factor is a pyridoxine enzyme, serine hydroxymethyltransferase. This enzyme is very low in resting lymphocytes but increases significantly under the influence of antigenic or mitogenic s...

Immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) is one of the most common types of primary glomerular disease. Immunosuppressive treatment for patients with IgAN remains controversial. The present meta-analysis aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of various immunosuppressive agents compared with steroids in patients with IgAN and moderate to severe proteinuria. PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Chinese...

As we enter the millennium, the most widely acknowledged advancement in transplantation has been the development of more selective and potent immunosuppressive agents. In the early period of transplantation, the selection of maintenance immunosuppression was limited to the combination of azathioprine and corticosteroids. Unfortunately, these agents were relatively non-specific and ineffective a...

Treatment of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) frequently includes use of immunosuppressive agents. Controlled treatment trials demonstrating efficacy are available only for prednisone and therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE). When these fail to achieve lasting chemical improvement after reduction or cessation of therapy, subsequent regimens are empiric, often leading to pro...