What's new in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy in 2007-2008?

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP)-related research has made progress in the field of pathogenesis, genetics, and treatment. The number of circulating CD4(+) CD25(+) T-regulatory cells was shown to be reduced in CIDP patients. Increased frequency of genotype GA13-16 of the SH2D2A gene encoding for a T-cell-specific adapter protein in CIDP patients may result in a defective control and elimination of autoreactive T cells. IVIg treatment has been shown to increase numbers and function of peripheral CD4(+) CD25(+) T-regulatory cell in a mouse model. These findings shed new light on the understanding of why peripheral tolerance is breached in CIDP patients and why the disease becomes chronic and adds another possible mechanism of action of intravenous immunoglobulin to the already long list. Long-term effectiveness of IVIg has now been proven. Subcutaneous immunoglobulin could be an alternative for IVIg, but this has to be explored further in well-designed trials. Autologous stem cell transplantation has been tried in refractory patients, but larger trials are necessary to assess safety and effect of this treatment.