PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide new treatment options, particularly those that may target different aspects of the pathology of the disease and offer similar or better levels of clinical benefit.SOLUTION: Methods of treating joint damage in a subject eligible for treatment are provided involving administering an antagonist that binds to a B-cell surface marker, such as CD20 antibody, to the subject in an amount effective to slow progression of the joint damage as measured by radiography. Further provided are articles of manufacture useful for such methods. In a first aspect, the present invention concerns a method for treating joint damage in a subject comprising administering a CD20 antibody to the subject and giving the subject, at least about one month after the administration, a radiographic test that measures a reduction in the joint damage as compared to baseline prior to the administration, wherein the amount of CD20 antibody administered is effective amount in achieving a reduction in the joint damage.

The Grid security mechanisms were designed under the assumption that users would submit their jobs directly to the Grid gatekeepers. However, many groups are starting to use pilot-based infrastructures, where users submit jobs to a centralized queue and are successively transferred to the Grid resources by the pilot infrastructure. While this approach greatly improves the user experience, it does introduce several security and policy issues, the more serious being the lack of system level protection between the users and the inability for Grid sites to apply fine grained authorization policies. One possible solution to the problem is provided by gLExec, a X.509 aware suexec derivative. By using gLExec, the pilot workflow becomes as secure as any traditional one.

OBJECTIVE:To assess the risk of serious infections following 22 weeks of infliximab therapy, and to further characterize the safety profile of infliximab in combination with background treatments during 1 year in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with various comorbidities.METHODS:Patients with active RA despite receiving methotrexate (MTX) were randomly assigned to receive infusions of placebo (group 1, n=363), 3 mg/kg infliximab (group 2, n=360), or 10 mg/kg infliximab (group 3, n=361) at weeks 0, 2, 6, and 14. At week 22, patients in placebo group 1 began receiving 3 mg/kg infliximab, and patients in group 3 continued to receive an infliximab dose of 10 mg/kg. Patients in group 2 who failed to meet predefined response criteria received increasing doses of infliximab in increments of 1.5 mg/kg.RESULTS:At week 22, the relative risk of developing serious infections in groups 2 and 3, compared with group 1, was 1.0 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.3-3.1, P=0.995) and 3.1 (95% CI 1.2-7.9, P=0.013), respectively. The incidence of serious adverse events was 7.8% in groups 2 and 3 compared with 7.5% in group 1. From week 22 to week 54, 11.8%, 9.9%, and 10.3% of patients in groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively, reported occurrences of serious adverse events. Through week 54, 1 patient in group 1, 2 patients in group 2, and 4 patients in group 3 developed active tuberculosis.CONCLUSION:The risk of serious infections in patients receiving the approved infliximab dose of 3 mg/kg plus MTX was similar to that in patients receiving MTX alone. Patients receiving the unapproved induction regimen of 10 mg/kg infliximab plus MTX followed by a 10 mg/kg maintenance regimen had an increased risk of serious infections through week 22.