Gammagard IVIg is a therapeutic approach to treat Alzheimer’s disease currently in phase 3 clinical trials. Despite the reported efficacy of the approach the mechanism of action is poorly understood. We have previously shown that intracranial injection of anti-A antibodies into the frontal cortex and hippocampus reveals important information regarding the time course of events once the agent is...

INTRODUCTION Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) therapy is an effective treatment in patients with different diseases. This product must comply with all the regulatory requirements established by the World Health Organization and the European Pharmacopoeia for clinical tolerance, therapeutic efficacy, and viral safety. Although IVIG are effective and safe products, in some patients they may caus...

Appropriate therapy during the acute phase of Kawasaki disease to prevent large coronary artery lesions (CAL) has not been established. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the usefulness of an initial single intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) therapy. In this study, I included a total of 200 pediatric patients who had received 2g/kg/day IVIG therapy for Kawasaki disease betwee...

Human intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) preparations are increasingly used for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Earlier work demonstrated the presence of autoantibodies against Fas in IVIg, suggesting that IVIg might be able to induce caspase-dependent cell death in Fas-sensitive cells. In this study, we demonstrate that sialic acid-binding Ig-like lectin 9 (Siglec) represents a surface mo...

PURPOSE We conducted a study to determine which factors may be useful as predictive markers in identifying Kawasaki disease (KD) patients with a high risk of resistance to intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and developing coronary artery lesions (CAL). METHODS We enrolled 287 patients in acute phase of KD at a single center. The demographic, clinical and laboratory data were collected retrospe...

Objective: To assess the evidence for the efficacy of IV immunoglobulin (IVIg) to treat neuromuscular disorders. Methods: The MEDLINE, Web of Science, and EMBASE databases were searched (1966–2009). Selected articles were rated according to the American Academy of Neurology’s therapeutic classification of evidence scheme; recommendations were based on the evidence level. Results and Recommendat...

Pooled normal polyspecific IgG for therapeutic use (IVIg) contain anti-idiotypes against idiotypic determinants expressed by autoantibodies from patients with a variety of autoimmune diseases. In the present study, antiidiotypes in IVIg are shown to recognize a cross-reactive idiotype on human anti-thyroglobulin (TG) autoantibodies, that was defined by heterologous antiidiotypic antibodies, ter...

OBJECTIVES To describe a population of children diagnosed with Kawasaki's disease (KD) in pediatric rheumatology centers of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, defining the magnitude of the delay period in diagnosing KD and initiating treatment due to confusion with common childhood febrile illnesses and the impact of this delay on the frequency of coronary sequels. METHODS Data analysis from hospital re...

Sir, Recently, positive effects of high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) (2 g/kg body weight) have been observed in immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) (1, 2) as well as in autoimmune blistering diseases (3). Furthermore, successful treatments of autoimmune chronic urticaria with high-dose IVIG was reported (4). Herein, we describe a very bene®cial effect in a patient with a long-standi...

OBJECTIVE To assess the evidence for the efficacy of IV immunoglobulin (IVIg) to treat neuromuscular disorders. METHODS The MEDLINE, Web of Science, and EMBASE databases were searched (1966-2009). Selected articles were rated according to the American Academy of Neurology's therapeutic classification of evidence scheme; recommendations were based on the evidence level. RESULTS AND RECOMMEND...