Therapeutic effect of infliximab on moderate and severe active rheumatoid arthritis / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the clinical efficacy of infliximab in the treatment of moderate and severe active rheumatoid arthritis (RA).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>This randomized double-blind II/III clinical trial involved 30 patients with moderate and severe active RA, who were randomly allocated into 3 groups (groups A, B, and C) at the ratio of 3:1:1. At weeks 0, 2, 6, and 14, the patients in groups A and C received infliximab or placebo, and those in group B had placebo at week 14 with a stable background dose of methotrexate. The indicators for efficacy evaluation included the proportions of ACR20/50/70 of the responders and DAS28. The sharp scores of the hand joints were recorded before and after the treatment.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Twenty-nine patients completed the clinical trial (18 in group A, 5 in group B, and 6 in group C). At week 14, the proportions of ACR20/50/70 in the 3 groups reached 83.33%, 60%, and 33.33%, respectively (P<0.05), as compared to 100%, 100%, and 33.33% at week 18 (P<0.05). The other indicators for clinical efficacy evaluation also suggested similar clinical improvement of the patients (P=0.000). The proportions of the patients with DAS28<3.2 and DAS28<2.6 were significantly different. Compared to the baseline, the Sharp scores in group A showed no significant changes at week 18 (P>0.930), while those in group C exhibited significant radiographic progression (P<0.044).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Infliximab produces good short-term therapeutic effect against moderate and severe active RA and may help arrest the radiographic progression of the diseases, which can be more obvious in patients with moderate severity.</p>

The expression of periphery blood leucocyte CCR3 and CCR5 in the children with Epstein-Barr virus associated infectious mononucleosis / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the expression of periphery blood leucocyte CCR3 and CCR5 and to comprehend T helper cell in the Children with Epstein-Barr virus associated infectious mononucleosis.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We defined the children according to the diagnosis criterion through Paul-Bunnell test inspecting the children's periphery blood unusual lymphocyte and detecting their anti-EBV-CA-IgM, anti-EBV-CA-IgG and anti-EBV-NA-IgG by ELISA and counted the ratio of CCR3 + and CCR5 + cells in lymphocytes with flow cytometry.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The ratio of unusual lymphocyte in IM was higher than that of the healthy control group (P < 0.05). The ratio of CCR3 + cells in IM group was higher than that of the healthy control group (P < 0.05). The ratio of CCR5 + cells in IM group was significantly lower than that of the healthy control group. CCR3 + had direct interrelation with fever continued time and the ratio of unusual lymphocyte. There was a negative interrelation between CCR5 and fever continued time (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Children infectious of IM expressed higher level of CCR3 + and lower level of CCR5 + and there was a tendency of Th2 polarization with over production of T helper cell divide imbalance. CCR3 + and CCR5 + may be important targets to judge the degree of seriousness of IM.</p>