Published in BioDrugs
Cyclosporin is the main immunosuppressive treatment for lung and heart-lung transplantation. When combined with azathioprine and oral corticosteroids, repeated episodes of acute rejection are limited to a minority of transplant patients. Despite early successful transplantation, many patients developed a disabling and fatal condition called obliter...
Published in BioDrugs
Azathioprine remains one of the most important and widely prescribed drugs for immunosuppression/immunomodulation in autoimmune disease over 30 years after its introduction. Extensive clinical experience with azathioprine and steady progress in understanding its pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic characteristics provide a clear understanding of ho...
Published in BioDrugs
Ribozymes have progressed from an intriguing subject of scientific study to therapeutic agents for the potential treatment of both acquired and inherited diseases. Clinical trials using ribozymes targeted against HIV, the aetiological agent of AIDS, have recently been initiated. Despite this rapid progression to clinical application, there are many...
Published in BioDrugs
SynopsisPrednicarbate is a synthetic nonhalogenated moderate to high potency corticosteroid. It is rapidly metabolised during skin permeation to prednisolone.Prednicarbate is indicated for relief of inflammation and pruritus associated with corticosteroid-responsive dermatological disorders such as dermatitis (eczema) [including atopic dermatitis] ...
Published in BioDrugs
There are no standardised diagnostic criteria for polymyalgia rheumatica. The combination of persistent pain (at least 1 month) with marked morning stiffness in at least 2 of the neck, shoulder or pelvic girdle is characteristic of polymyalgia rheumatica. The other criteria are age >50 years, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) >40 mm/hour, rapid ...
Published in BioDrugs
Gaucher disease is caused by a deficiency of glucocerebrosidase. It is the first lysosomal storage disorder for which effective enzyme-supplementation therapy has become available. The enzyme, alglucerase, is glucocerebrosidase derived from human placental tissue; its oligosaccharide chain has been modified to expose terminal mannose residues, faci...
Published in BioDrugs
Severe combined immune deficiency disease due to a deficiency of the enzyme adenosine deaminase is a rare disease. However, it has been used as a prototype disease for the development of a variety of treatment modalities that are currently applied in more frequent diseases. For example, allogeneic bone marrow transplantation and stem cell gene ther...
Published in BioDrugs
SynopsisInterferon- α- n1 (lymphoblastoid interferon- α) is a nonrecombinant ‘natural’ interferon derived from lymphoblastoid cells exposed to Sendai virus. In common with endogenous and recombinant interferon- α molecules, interferon- α- n1 has antiviral, immunomodulatory and antiproliferative properties.Interferon- α- n1 shows some efficacy in im...
Published in BioDrugs
Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) remains the major problem to be overcome in transplantation of allogeneic haemopoietic stem cells. Using immunosuppressive prophylaxis with cyclosporin and methotrexate, moderate to severe acute GVHD develops in approximately 45% of transplant recipients with an HLA-identical sibling donor and in >75% of patients fr...
Published in BioDrugs
SynopsisTetravalent human- rhesus reassortant rotavirus vaccine (RRV- TV) contains the rhesus rotavirus (RRV) strain MMU 18006, which has serotype G3 specificity, and reassortant rotavirus strains with human serotype G1, G2 and G4 specificity. Rotavirus gastroenteritis in humans is predominantly caused by these 4 serotypes.RRV- TV 4 × 104, 4 × 105 ...
