Protein Blocker Curbs Rheumatoid Arthritis

Blocking the activity of a natural protein involved in inflammation may be a new approach to treating rheumatoid arthritis.

Blocking the activity of a natural protein involved in inflammation may be a new approach to treating rheumatoid arthritis.Japanese researchers have shown that a synthetic antibody targeting the receptor for a hormone-like protein called interleukin 6 (IL-6) significantly reduces disease activity in patients with difficult-to-treat rheumatoid arthritis.IL-6 regulates the immune response, inflammation, and bone metabolism, the team explains in the medical journal Arthritis & Rheumatism. Overproduction of IL-6 is thought to play a role in rheumatoid arthritis.Dr. Norihiro Nishimoto from Osaka University, and colleagues tested the safety and effectiveness of an anti-IL-6 antibody, dubbed MRA, in 164 patients whose rheumatoid arthritis had been unsuccessfully treated with at least one potent drug. Some of the participants were given MRA by injection every four weeks for a total of 3 months, while others got dummy injections.All measures of arthritis activity improved with MRA treatment, the authors report, with benefit seen as early as 4 weeks into treatment.Levels of C-reactive protein, a measure of ongoing inflammation, normalized in 76 percent of patients treated with 8-millgram doses of MRA, compared with 26 percent of those given 4 milligrams, and only 2 percent of patients treated with the inactive placebo.Adverse events were reported by similar percentages of patients in the different treatment groups, the researchers note.”The success in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with MRA,” Nishimoto’s team concludes, confirms that “IL-6 plays important pathologic roles in rheumatoid arthritis.”(Source: Reuters, Arthritis & Rheumatism, July 2004)