BACKGROUND There is a lack of high-quality meta-analyses and network meta-analyses of immunosuppressive drugs for lupus nephritis. Our objective was to assess the comparative benefits and harms of immunosuppressive drugs and corticosteroids in lupus nephritis. METHODS We conducted a systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA) of trials of immunosuppressive drugs and corticosteroids in p...

In systemic sclerosis (SSc), dermal capillaries are progressively lost with consequent chronic tissue hypoxia insufficiently compensated by angiogenesis. Clinical studies reported that intravenous cyclophosphamide (CYC) may improve SSc-related peripheral microvascular damage. Recently, we showed that CYC treatment may normalize SSc sera-induced abnormalities in endothelial cell-matrix interacti...

Dendritic cells (DC) undergo complex developmental changes during maturation. The MHC class II (MHC II) molecules of immature DC accumulate in intracellular compartments, but are expressed at high levels on the plasma membrane upon DC maturation. It has been proposed that the cysteine protease inhibitor cystatin C (CyC) plays a pivotal role in the control of this process by regulating the activ...

OBJECTIVE Cyclophosphamide (CYC) therapy for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a disease predominantly affecting women of childbearing age, causes an unacceptably high incidence of irreversible premature ovarian failure (POF). This study was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of depot leuprolide acetate, a synthetic gonadotropin-releasing hormone analog (GnRH-a), for protection against P...

The Cyc project is predicated on the idea that effective machine learning depends on having a core of knowledge that provides a context for novel learned information – what is known informally as “common sense.” Over the last twenty years, a sufficient core of common sense knowledge has been entered into Cyc to allow it to begin effectively and flexibly supporting its most important task: incre...

OBJECTIVE Standard therapy for antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated systemic vasculitis (AASV) with cyclophosphamide (CYC) and prednisolone is limited by toxicity. This unblinded, prospective, randomized, controlled trial was undertaken to determine whether methotrexate (MTX) could replace CYC in the early treatment of AASV. METHODS Patients with newly diagnosed AASV, with serum cre...

INTRODUCTION Disease activity and therapy show an impact on cellular and serological parameters in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). This study was performed to compare the influence of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and cyclophosphamide (CYC) therapy on these parameters in patients with flaring, organ-threatening disease. METHODS SLE patients currently receiving CYC (n = 20), MM...

Mesna (2-mercaptoethane sulfonate Na), a drug that alleviates cyclophosphamide (CYC)-induced hemorrhagic cystitis, is frequently used to treat cancer and collagen diseases. A 33-year-old woman presented with high fever during CYC-based induction therapy for systemic lupus erythematosus. Her final diagnosis was mesna-induced drug hypersensitivity. Although mesna is widely used, allergic reaction...

We describe here the purification and quantification of a water-soluble cyclic form of enterobacterial common antigen (ECA(CYC)) from Escherichia coli K-12 as well as information regarding its subcellular location and the genetic loci involved in its assembly. Structural characterization of purified ECA(CYC) molecules obtained from E. coli K-12 revealed that they uniformly contained four trisac...

Treatment strategies for anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) are evolving. Cyclophosphamide (CYC) plus corticosteroids (CSs) is the mainstay of therapy for generalized, multisystemic AAV. Historically, the combination of CYC plus CS was used for a minimum of 12 months, but concern about late toxicities associated with CYC has led to novel treatment approaches...