Rheumatology Advance Access originally published online on November 6, 2007
Rheumatology 2007 46(12):1745-1746; doi:10.1093/rheumatology/kem285
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
EDITORIALS |
Regulators of cytokine signalling in rheumatoid arthritis
Department of Medicine, University College London - Centre for Rheumatology, London, UK
Correspondence to: A. Rahman, Centre for Rheumatology Research, University College London, Room 331, 3rd Floor, Windeyer Institute, 46 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JF, UK. E-mail: anisur.rahman@ucl.ac.uk
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Over the last decade, dramatic improvements in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have resulted from increased understanding of the role played by cytokines in the rheumatoid synovium. The development of the anti-TNF-
agents infliximab [1], etanercept [2] and adalimumab [3] has been the most striking manifestation of this success, but other cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-1 have also been studied. It is important to recognize, however, that a sizeable proportion of patients do not respond to anti-TNF- treatment [1–3]. For these patients, different therapeutic avenues must be explored. These may include manipulation of alternative cytokines or treatments that target cells rather than cytokines. The use of rituximab to deplete peripheral B cells is an example of the latter approach [4].
Another alternative is to look at the ways in which cytokines exert effects on their target cells