Can different degrees of resistance training improve mood states in patients with fibromyalgia? A randomized controlled trial.

The purpose of this study was to look at the effects of low and high intensity resistance training (RT) on the mood states of fibromyalgia patients (FM). A total of 69 women participated in the study, with 31 healthy women serving as control group (HC), and 28 women diagnosed with FM being randomly assigned to one of two RT groups: low intensity or high intensity. Ten women diagnosed with FM formed a group of preferred intensity (PI). FM patients were subjected to 8 weeks of supervised RT with low, high, or PI doses. The exercise protocol was the same for both groups, with large muscle group exercises. Each intervention group performed a specific number of repetitions and rest periods based on the intensity. Training sessions took place twice a week. The HC received no type of intervention. The Brunel mood scale was used to assess mood states. When the mood profiles of patients with FM and healthy women were compared, patients with FM showed a worse mood profile. Low and high intensity RT for eight weeks did not improve the mood profile of FM patients. Anger showed a significant difference between LIRT and HIRT groups in the follow-up period (p=0.01); similarly significant differences between HIRT and HC were seen at baseline and at the 4 week evaluation in vigor (p=0.01 and p=0.001) and fatigue (p=0.01 and p=0.03). FM patients have a worse mood profile than healthy women, and eight weeks of low and high intensity RT did not result in significant improvements.

Strategy to detect pre-existing immunity to AAV gene therapy.

Gene therapy may offer a new treatment option, particularly for patients with severe hemophilia, based on recent research. However, individuals with pre-existing immunity to adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) may be less likely to benefit from AAV vector-based therapies. To study pre-existing AAV5 immunity in humans, we validated two complementary, sensitive, and scalable in vitro assays to detect AAV5 total antibodies and transduction inhibition (TI). Using these two assays, we found that 53% of samples from 100 healthy male individuals were negative in both assays, 18% were positive in both assays, 5% were positive for total antibodies but negative for TI and, of interest, 24% were negative for total antibodies but positive for TI activity, suggesting the presence of non-antibody-based neutralizing factors in human plasma. Similar findings were obtained with 24 samples from individuals with hemophilia A. On the basis of these results, we describe the development of a dual-assay strategy to identify individuals without total AAV5 antibodies or neutralizing factors who may be more likely to respond to AAV5-directed gene therapy. These assays offer a universal, transferrable platform across laboratories to assess the global prevalence of AAV5 antibodies and neutralizing factors in large patient populations to help inform clinical development strategies.