Clinical Research Directory

Studies of the Natural History, Pathogenesis, and Outcome of Autoinflammatory Diseases Including Juvenile Dermatomyositis

Purpose: The purpose of this protocol is 1. To comprehensively evaluate patients with autoinflammatory diseases clinically, genetically and immunologically at the autoinflammatory disease clinic at the NIH. 2. To follow patients with autoinflammatory Diseases that are genetically defined including Neonatal-Onset Multisystem Inflammatory Disease (NOMID), the most severe clinical phenotype of Cryopyrin-Associated Periodic Syndromes (CAPS), Deficiency of IL-1 Receptor Antagonist (DIRA), Chronic Atypical Neutrophilic Dermatosis with Lipodystrophy and Elevated temperatures (CANDLE), and STING-Associated Vasculopathy with onset in Infancy (SAVI), and those with genetically undefined autoinflammatory disorders to determine long-term disease outcomes. 3. To develop biomarkers that help us assess disease activity and response to treatment. 4. To assess the eligibility of affected patients for inclusion in ongoing and planned treatment protocols. Goal: The goals of our studies are to understand the underlying immune dysregulation, to identify the genetic cause and to translate our findings into novel treatments that improve patients disease outcome. Eligibility: * Patients with known NOMID/CAPS, DIRA, CANDLE, SAVI, CRMO, Still's Disease, and with other yet undifferentiated autoinflammatory diseases. * Healthy adult and pediatric relatives. * Volunteers Design: Participants will be evaluated at the NIH for 2-5 days. All participants will have a detailed medical history, physical exam, blood tests and other evaluations depending on the extend of their autoinflammatory disease. Participants may also expect the following assessments: 1. Clinical test that help assess organ damage and functional impact such as hearing vision, memory and learning tests. 2. Imaging studies to characterize the organ involvement of the inflammatory disease including: X-rays, CT scans, special MRIs, bone scans. 3. Laboratory evaluations including clinical markers of disease activity, research samples for genetic studies, and blood samples for cytokine/biomarker assessment, and gene expression profiling.\<TAB\> 4. Completion of questionnaires to assess disease activity and quality of life. 5. If indicated, other procedures may be administered that include: a lumbar puncture if CNS inflammation is suspected and a skin biopsy if skin inflammation is present. other gastrointestinal procedures as they are clinically indicated. 6. Patients my have a research skin biopsy taken. Participants may return for a single follow-up visits or for long term-follow up depending on their disease and willingness to be followed long-term. ...

Biocollection of Rare Pediatric-onset of Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Diseases

Rare diseases are defined as those that affect one person in 2,000, or around three million people in France. The majority of rare diseases are caused by genetics and tend to be severe when they begin in childhood. Autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases, such as systemic lupus, juvenile dermatomyositis, and juvenile idiopathic arthritis, are examples of rare pediatric diseases. While autoimmune diseases are characterized by an inappropriate adaptive immune response, autoinflammatory diseases involve an excess of the innate immune response. The precise mechanisms of these diseases are not yet fully understood, but recent research has led to advances in their diagnosis and identification, particularly in early onset and familial forms. However, the rarity of these diseases and limited availability of biological samples pose significant challenges. This study aims to create a biological collection, which includes primary cells (PBMC), DNA, RNA, lymphoblastic lines, and serum, that will help identify genetic and immunological abnormalities in rare autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases through various research projects.

Development and Characterization of Functional Assays for the Analysis of Inflammation Signaling Pathways

Auto-inflammatory diseases are part of a heterogeneous group of illnesses manifested by an inflammatory reaction in its initial phase (innate immunity) that is activated inappropriately: either because the reaction is too strong, or because it is not justified (e.g. in the absence of infection). Autoinflammatory diseases are often initially described as genetic in origin (i.e. hereditary or familial), and preferentially affect children or young adults. However, the preponderance of auto-inflammation as a cause of symptoms has led to the development of a number of other diseases. In some cases, autoinflammatory diseases may also remain "unclassified". Generally speaking, autoinflammatory diseases manifest as recurrent attacks of fever, rash and joint pain. Certain signs are more specific to certain diseases, such as urticaria, abdominal pain, mouth ulcers or cervical lymph nodes... It is above all the repetition of the attacks and their unprovoked nature that attract the attention of the patient and the doctor. These attacks are systematically associated with an increase in inflammation markers in the blood. At present, not all inflammation pathways have been identified. With this study, investigator aim to characterize rare autoinflammatory disease variants and develop relevant cellular models to study inflammation pathways.

Clinical Assessment for Rheumatologic Disease - Research and Advancement in Safety and Efficacy

The CARe RAiSE project represents a pioneering translational initiative aimed at advancing precision medicine in the treatment of autoimmune rheumatic diseases. The primary objective is the development and implementation of an innovative cell-based ex vivo assay that enables individualized prediction of therapeutic response to disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). By identifying the most effective treatment option for each patient, this approach seeks to enhance therapeutic efficacy, reduce time to clinical response, and minimize healthcare costs. Despite the availability of numerous DMARDs, clinical decision-making remains largely empirical due to considerable interindividual variability in treatment response. This frequently results in a prolonged trial-and-error process, placing a significant burden on patients and the healthcare system. CARe RAiSE aims to overcome this limitation by providing a functional diagnostic tool that can predict a patient's immunological response to specific DMARDs prior to treatment initiation. The assay is based on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from individual patients, enabling a physiologically relevant assessment of immune responsiveness to targeted therapies. Combining high-content imaging with homogeneous well-based cytokine and inflammasome activity assays, the platform allows for a detailed single-cell analysis of inflammatory pathways. These data are used to generate predictive signatures of treatment response, thereby facilitating a mechanistically informed and personalized therapeutic strategy. Through this approach, CARe RAiSE introduces a scientifically grounded, efficient, and patient-specific method for DMARD selection, with the potential to substantially improve patient outcomes and reduce the socioeconomic impact of autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

Unclassified GENotypes of Autoinflammatory Diseases and AA Amyloidosis

Patients with autoinflammatory diseases (AID) have recurrent episodes of systemic inflammation accompanied by nonspecific elevation of blood inflammation markers typically absent between attacks. A complication of autoinflammatory diseases is AA amyloidosis, which can lead to renal failure and dialysis. Advances in genetic analysis have led to the identification of new autoinflammatory diseases and thus new pathophysiological pathways. However, genetic analyses are sometimes confronted with results that are difficult to interpret. These are the Variants of Unknown Significance, for which genetic analysis alone does not allow to determine if the genetic mutation is responsible for the symptoms. genetic analysis sometimes has limitations in the diagnosis of AID which can only be overcome by pathophysiological studies of the variants found.

Clinical Autoinflammatory Disease Cohort

Autoinflammatory diseases (AIDs) are a group of rare disorders caused by dysregulation of the innate immune system, characterized by recurrent fever, systemic inflammation, and involvement of specific organs. Diagnosis relies on a combination of clinical features, laboratory tests, genetic findings, and response to treatment. Still's disease is a representative type of AID, marked by high spiking fevers, polyarthritis, evanescent rash, and markedly elevated inflammatory markers. Among its complications, macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) is the most life-threatening, affecting approximately 10-15% of patients. MAS involves uncontrolled immune activation and systemic inflammation, and if left untreated, may result in a mortality rate exceeding 50%. This study aims to develop a standardized clinical dataset and diagnostic-treatment framework for AIDs based on their disease characteristics. After establishing a data collection template, eligible patients aged 18-75 years with AIDs will be enrolled. Clinical data will be collected to build a prospective follow-up cohort, focusing particularly on adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD), to explore the clinical features and pathogenesis of AIDs.

Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Genetics Study

This is an exploratory natural history protocol that will enroll patients with known genetic diseases, such as VEXAS syndrome, or as yet undiagnosed disorders of inflammation with the goal of improving our understanding of disease processes. Blood, saliva, hair, nail, or buccal samples may be collected for genetic analysis, blood samples will be obtained for immunologic and other functional studies, and a small number of subjects may undergo skin biopsy.

Biomarkers in Autoimmune Diseases, Vasculitis and Auto Inflammatory Diseases

The objective of this work is to identify, in patients with autoimmune diseases, systemic vasculitis and autoinflammatory disease, cytokine and lymphocyte biomarkers of activity of these diseases to identify follow-up biomarkers, in order to personalize the follow-up and the treatments for each patient. Immunological data will be obtained from biological samples collected as part of the usual patient care pathway (Blood and tissues sampling) The study will take place in the Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Immunology (DMIIC), that is certified as the National Reference Centre for Rare Systemic Autoimmune Diseases and the National Reference Centre for Inflammatory Autoinflammatory Diseases and Inflammatory Amyloidosis (CEREMAIA). Its objective is to contribute to the advancement of fundamental knowledge in immunology, in particular to develop prognostic biomarkers of the activity of autoimmune diseases, systemic vasculitis and autoinflammatory diseases by using blood tests.

Pericardial Fluid Analysis in Recurrent Pericarditis

This clinical trial aims to examine the biochemical and cytological features of pericardial effusion during acute and recurrent pericarditis and to understand the molecular factors responsible for pathogenesis. The primary objective of this study is to identify and validate diagnostic criteria in pericardial fluid analysis that can differentiate patients with acute and recurrent pericarditis from those with only pericardial fluid but no inflammation. This study will enroll patients with acute pericarditis who require pericardiocentesis for either diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. Two control groups will also be included: one consisting of patients who need cardiac surgery with a collection of pericardial fluid, and the other consisting of patients who require pericardiocentesis for non-inflammatory pericardial effusion. The purpose of the study is to compare the cell activation status and cytokines present in pericardial fluid during acute pericarditis with those present during other pericardial pathologies.

Flemish Joint Effort for Biomarker PRofiling in Inflammatory Systemic Diseases

A multi-centre, prospective study to study cytokine profiles and other potential disease-specific biomarkers in patients with presumed or confirmed diseases of systemic inflammation The goal of this prospective, observational study is to describe the longitudinal evolution of blood cytokine profiles in patients with presumed or confirmed diseases of systemic inflammation The main questions it aims to answer are: * What are the differences and similarities in blood cytokines between different patients and groups presenting symptoms of systemic inflammatory conditions? * How is the cytokine profile of individual patients evolving over time and what is the effect of different therapeutics? * Is cytokine profiling a valuable tool to diagnose and follow-up on patients with systemic inflammatory conditions? Participants will be asked to give an additional blood volume for research purposes when blood sampling is performed for routine clinical purposes. A subset of patients (those initiated on biologicals) will also be asked to complete questionnaires. Researchers will compare the blood cytokines profiles between the different groups of systemic inflammatory conditions and with healthy individuals.

Are Mast Cells Involved in Autoinflammatory Diseases

Autoinflammatory diseases (AID) are caused by innate immunity dysregulation. AID pathophysiology is only partly understood, especially in the case of unclassified AID. Mast cells (MC) are innate immune cells associated with a spectrum of disease between systemic mastocytosis and mast cell activation syndrome. The implication of MC has been shown in cryopyrin associated periodic syndrome (CAPS).Our aim is to evaluate the involvement of MC in AID by assessing clinical and biological signs of MC activation and studying cutaneous and digestive biopsies.