Bay Biosciences provides fresh frozen (-80°) serum, plasma, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) samples from unique patients diagnosed with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) disease.

Moreover, the serum, plasma and PBMC specimens were collected from unique CIDP patients before and after Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG) treatment.

CIDP Overview

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) is a neurological disorder, specifically a condition that targets patients’ body’s nerves. Moreover, CIDP is characterized by progressive weakness and impaired sensory function in the legs and arms. Additionally, the CIDP disorder is sometimes called chronic relapsing polyneuropathy.

Furthermore, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, or CIDP, is a rare and progressive autoimmune disease that affects the nerves in the arms and legs.

Myelin

In patients with CIDP, the protective covering of the peripheral nerves, called myelin, is damaged by the body’s own immune system. Notably, myelin sheath is the fatty covering that wraps around and protects nerve fibers of the peripheral nerves.

Consequently, damage to nerves and their myelin covering means that messages from the brain to various parts of the body become disrupted. As a result, this can cause weakness and a gradual loss of sensations and reflexes.

Over time, this damage may ultimately lead to disability in the arms and legs.

Importantly, CIDP can occur at any age and in both male and female patients. Interestingly, CIDP is more common in young adults, and even more so in men than women.

It often presents with symptoms that include, for instance, tingling or numbness (beginning in the toes and fingers), weakness of the arms and legs, loss of deep tendon reflexes (areflexia), fatigue, and, additionally, abnormal sensations in the body.

Furthermore, there is no definitive test to diagnose CIDP; consequently, specialists often require a referral to confirm diagnosis. However, doctors use some tests and tools to help assess patients for the disease. Moreover, CIDP progresses over time and often takes longer to diagnose. Although it is treatable, there is also a possibility of relapse.

Signs and Symptoms of Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP)

CIDP presents a variety of signs and symptoms that differ from person to person. Moreover, following are some of the common signs and symptoms of CIDP:

  • Firstly, weakness
  • Secondly, numbness
  • Thirdly, tingling in the legs, arms, fingers and hands
  • Moreover, fatigue
  • Furthermore, pain
  • In addition, balance problems
  • Also, impairment of ability to walk
  • Likewise, burning sensation in the fingers, hands, toes and feet 
  • Finally, impaired condition
  • Lastly, trouble walking, bending over, reaching and squatting 

Symptoms usually occur on both sides of the body at the same time. Likewise, sometimes only one side is involved. Moreover, CIDP patients may experience symptoms in the head, arms fingers, hands, legs, toes and feet. CIDP symptoms can be mild, moderate and severe and change in severity over time.

Causes of Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP)

Causes of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) are unknown; consequently, it remains unclear why people get the disorder. Researchers believe that inflammation of nerves and nerve roots causes CIDP.

Specifically, the swelling can destroy the protective covering around nerves, known as myelin. As a result, that can hurt nerve fibers and slow the nerves’ ability to send signals. This, in turn, is what causes the weakness, pain, fatigue, and numbness.

Diagnosis of Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP)

Diagnosing CIDP can be a challenge because its symptoms resemble those of other nervous system disorders, primarily due to the similarities with symptoms of other disorders. Moreover, it can take several months to obtain an accurate diagnosis of CIDP.

However, some tests and tools help doctors assess patients. In most cases, a neurologist or a neuromuscular specialist, to whom another doctor refers you, will provide a diagnosis. If doctors catch CIDP early enough, they can treat it.

Diagnostic Tests

Thus, the treatment will depend on your specific case. Ultimately, an accurate CIDP diagnosis is dependent on tests like an EMG, MRI, or nerve conduction test.

Following tests may be performed to diagnose CIDP:

  • Physical Exam – Usually a doctor will perform a physical exam to evaluate the symptoms and may also collect blood samples for laboratory testing. The physical exam will evaluate things such as your strength, sensations, reflexes, gait, and coordination.
  • Nerve Conduction Study (NCS) – NCS is an important test that measures how well the patients nerves send signals to different parts of the body. During the test, the nerve is stimulated with mild electrical impulses, usually with surface electrode patches attached to the skin.
  • Electromyography (EMG) – This procedure measures the health of muscles and the nerves that control them. During a needle EMG, a needle electrode inserted directly into a muscle records the electrical activity in that muscle. The test results help reveal how severe the nerve damage is and how much recovery may be expected.
  • Lumbar Puncture/Spinal Tap – In this medical procedure a needle is inserted into the lower part of the spine to obtain a small sample of the liquid surrounding the spinal cord. This procedure tests for conditions affecting the brain, spinal cord, or other parts of the nervous system.
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) – MRI scan test uses a powerful magnetic field and radio waves to make pictures of the spinal cord and nerve bundles. An MRI can help in the diagnosis of CIDP by detecting damage to the nerves.
  • Nerve Biopsy – This is an optional and rarely performed procedure where a sample of a nerve is taken from the body and looked at under a microscope. A nerve biopsy can be done to either confirm CIDP or rule out other conditions.

Treatment of Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP)

Early treatment of CIDP is very important, it can help prevent the nerve damage that can help stop symptoms from becoming severe. Treatment of CIDP may include:

  • Corticosteroids: Corticosteroids are medications that bring down inflammation and slow the immune system.
  • Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG): Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is the treatment of choice for patients with antibody deficiencies. CIDP patients may be given IVIG injections of concentrated antibodies from healthy donors to slow the body’s immune response.
  • Plasma exchange (PE): Plasma exchange (PE) treatment involves receiving a part of blood called plasma through an intravenous (IV) to slow down the immune system.
  • Immunotherapy: Immunotherapy drugs interrupt the immune system to help stop it from attacking the myelin.
  • Stem cell transplant. In rare cases, the doctor may inject healthy stem cells, either yours or donated by someone else to reset your immune system.

In addition to the above treatments for CIDP, physical therapy and moderate exercise will help the CIDP patients and make them feel more energetic. CIDP symptoms such as pain are manageable sometimes and hard to deal with at other times. Usually pain is treated with over-the-counter painkillers and other prescription medications.

Biospecimens

biospecimens

Bay Biosciences is a global leader in providing researchers with high quality, clinical grade, fully characterized human tissue samples, bio-specimens, and human bio-fluid collections.

Human biospecimens are available including cancer (tumor) tissue, cancer serum, cancer plasma, cancer peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). and human tissue samples from most other therapeutic areas and diseases.

Bay Biosciences maintains and manages its own biorepository, the human tissue bank (biobank) consisting of thousands of diseased samples (specimens) and from normal healthy donors for controls, available in all formats and types.

In fact, our biobank procures and stores fully consented, de-identified and institutional review boards (IRB) approved human tissue samples, human biofluids such as serum samples, plasma samples from various diseases and matched controls.

Also, all our human tissue collections, human biospecimens and human biofluids are provided with detailed, samples associated patient’s clinical data.

In fact, this critical patient’s clinical data includes information relating to their past and current disease, treatment history, lifestyle choices, biomarkers, and genetic information.

Additionally, researchers find the patient’s data associated with the human biospecimens extremely valuable and use it to help identify new effective treatments (drug discovery & development) in oncology, as well as in other therapeutic areas and diseases.

Bay Biosciences banks wide variety of human tissue samples and human biological samples, including fresh frozen human biospecimens cryogenically preserved at – 80°C.

For example fresh frozen tissue samples, tumor tissue samples, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE), tissue slides, with matching human bio-fluids, whole blood and blood-derived products such as human serum, human plasma and human PBMCs.

Bay Biosciences is a global leader in collecting and providing human tissue samples according to the specified requirements and customized, tailor-made collection protocols.

Please contact us anytime to discuss your special research projects and customized human tissue sample requirements.

Types of Biospecimens

Bay Biosciences provides human tissue samples (human specimens) and human biofluids from diseased and normal healthy donors which includes:

Moreover, we can also procure most human biospecimens and human biofluids, special collections and requests for human samples that are difficult to find. All our human tissue samples and human biofluids are procured through IRB-approved clinical protocols and procedures.

In addition to the standard processing protocols, Bay Biosciences can also provide human biofluids such as  human plasma, human serum, and human PBMCs bio-fluid samples using custom processing protocols; you buy donor-specific collections in higher volumes and specified sample aliquots from us.

Bay Biosciences also provides human biospecimens from normal healthy donors; volunteers, for controls and clinical research, Contact us Now.