Current Arthritis News and Research » Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment

Chinese Herbal Remedy May Ease Rheumatoid Arthritis

awesome — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:47:15 +0000

Although recent advancements in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) therapies have led to a increased number of available treatments, quite a few of those therapies have side effects that result in some users discontinuing treatment or seeking complementary and alternative medicines.

A recently published study shows that the Chinese herb Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F (TwHF), also known as “lei gong teng” or “thunder god vine,” improved joint tenderness and pain in a small sampling of people treated with the medicinal plant.

The report says that people who took an extract of the herb’s roots for 6 months experienced significant improvement in RA symptoms compared to those who took the anti-inflammatory drug sulfasalazine.

Thunder God Vine

Scientists say that thunder god vine has been used for centuries in China to treat an assortment of inflammatory diseases, and a few small clinical trials have suggested that the thunder god vine may benefit people with rheumatoid arthritis.

This study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine,

To perform the analysis, 121 people with rheumatoid arthritis were randomly assigned to take 60 milligrams of TwHF 3 times a day or 1 gram of sulfasalazine twice a day for 24 weeks.

Dr. Christine Laine, an internist who edited the study, said

“It is too early to say whether or not the study defines a specific role for the therapy. The finding brings forward convincing evidence that thunder god vine has an effect similar to that of sulfasalazine.”

However, the thunder god vine may also cause unwanted side effects, and has the potential to significantly reduce male sperm.

Sixty-two patients dropped out before prior to completing the study. But after 24 weeks of treatment, researchers found 67% of the people taking TwHF experienced at least 20% improvement on a standard measure of rheumatoid arthritis symptoms than the other group.

Researcher Raphaela Goldbach-Mansky, MD, MHS, of the National Institutes of Health, and colleagues say the study was not long enough to demonstrate if thunder god vine also helped to hinder the progression of joint destruction from RA. But if additional studies confirm these results in larger numbers of people, thunder god vine may provide an affordable natural treatment option for rheumatoid arthritis.

Originally posted 2009-08-18 20:34:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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One Time Treatment for Rheumatoid Arthritis

awesome — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:46:31 +0000

T-Cell (Orange)

A new one time treatment is being tested by scientists in Great Britain which could potentially “switch off” rheumatoid arthritis. The researchers are theorizing that the drug will turn off the immune system response that is the cause of the debilitating disease. This may put the RA patient into remission for years, or even potentially for life.

The trials, led by Clinical Rheumatology Professor John Isaacs at Newcastle, are scheduled to start next month and will initially involve 40 patients.

The drug being tested is called otelixizumab which was used in the past in stronger doses to prevent rejection of organs by transplant patients.

Otelixizumab targets T-cells, white blood cells that are part of the body’s immune system which are key to the process in RA. The researchers believe that if they can “switch off” the signals from the T-cells they can halt RA at the source.

The trial participants will receive a one-off dose of otelixizumab, administered intravenously for between two and five hours a day over five consecutive days. Current treatments for rheumatoid arthritis can send patients into remission, but these they have to be administered on an ongoing basis.

“There is the potential that this switch off could last forever. Perhaps this would only be in patients who we treat at the early stage of the disease. However, the chance of this happening in patients who have had the disease for a while is not altogether absent” says Professor Isaacs.

If the trials show that the treatment is successful researchers hope that they can develop a form of the drug which can be easily injected by the patients themselves.

If successful, the drug could be available to patients within a decade.

Originally posted 2010-04-15 12:22:08. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Suicide Cell Developed to Treat Rheumatoid Arhtritis

awesome — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:46:27 +0000

Macrophage

In a properly functioning immune system, the immune cells are supposed to die after attacking an invading bacteria or virus. This process of cell death is called apoptosis.

“In apoptosis, a cell quietly dies off and gets removed from the system. That’s the way our body has of renewing itself all the time. In your stomach you have it, in your skin you have it. Almost all of your cells eventually die off and you get new cells.” says researcher Harris Perlman, of the Northwestern University Division of Rheumatology at Feinberg School of Medicine.

However, in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, the immune system macrophages, or white blood cells, don’t die, but continue to proliferate in the blood. These cells tend to build up in the joints, attacking the healthy bone and cartilage, resulting in pain and inflammation.

There are no current effective and nontoxic methods to stop this overproduction.

But recently, Perlman and a team of researchers from the Feinberg School of Medicine discovered that immune cells in RA are deficient in the Bim, or suicide, molecule, which controls the cell’s self destruct mechanism. The team then set out to create an imitation of the Bim molecule, called the BH3 mimetic.

The researchers then injected the new drug into mice with rheumatoid arthritis and it floated into the macrophages like a ghost, leading to its nickname – Casper the Ghost.

The new drug not only resulted in the immune cells self destructing, the researchers found the disease went into remission. In their research, they also noted that the BH3 mimetic molecule reduced joint swelling and bone loss.

“This new therapy stopped the disease cold in 75 percent of the mice,” said Perlman. “The best part was we didn’t see any toxicity. This has a lot of potential for creating an entirely new treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.”

In the future Perlman and his team plan to create a better system to deliver the drug, to make it more targeted and enable it to live longer in the body. He estimates that it will be five to ten years before a viable drug would be available if the therapy lives up to its promise.

The study was published in the February issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.

Originally posted 2010-02-11 07:00:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Parasitic Worms May Treat Rheumatoid Arthritis

awesome — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:46:26 +0000

Scientists have found that in countries where parasitic infections are common the incidence of autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, type-1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis, is relatively small. One hypothesis is that a chemical secreted by parasitic worms may have anti-inflammatory properties. If true, it may lead to a potential treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Previous research has discovered that the parasitic filarial nematode worm secretes a large molecule called ES-62 and that this molecule exerts anti-inflammatory action in laboratory cultures. Researchers from the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde are preparing to delve further into the possibilities of utilizing ES-62 as a treatment for RA.

Led by Professor Margaret Harnett, at the University of Glasgow’s Division of Immunology, Infection and Inflammation, the team is hoping to produce a synthetic form of ES-62 for use in developing an anti-inflammatory drug that can be used to treat inflammatory diseases.

There are tens of millions of people in the tropics that are infected by parasitic worms, all of whom have ES-62 in their bloodstream. This prevents the inflammatory response that accompanies the conditions that the worms can cause, such as elephantiasis. As far as they have found, ES-62 has no known adverse affects on general health, nor does it affect the ability to fight other infections.

According to Prof. William Harnett of the University of Strathclyde: “We will be focusing on mechanisms of combating hyper-inflammation that have developed naturally and with apparent acceptance by humans during their co-evolution with parasites.”

Professor Iain McInnes of the Unversity of Glasgow, another member of the research team, said: “ES-62 appears to act like a thermostat to effectively turn down disease-causing inflammation which leaves essential defence mechanisms intact to fight infection and cancer.

The research is being funded by a three-year grant of £213,700 from the Arthritis Research Campaign.

Originally posted 2008-09-17 20:19:45. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Europeans Recommend New Rheumatoid Arthritis Drug

awesome — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:46:18 +0000

A novel new drug, based on the commonly used prednisone, has been recommended for European regulatory approval for treatment of morning stiffness resulting from rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The drug, sold under the name Lodotra™ is manufactured by the Swiss based Nitec Pharma AG.

RA stiffness and pain is caused by pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a), which peak during the night. Cytokines are molecules, such as hormones, that allow for communication between cells. Lodotra™ is a low dose prednisone tablet that interferes with the ability of IL-6 to cause inflammation.

Prednisone is a glucocorticoid, a class of drugs that are used to suppress inflammatory, autoimmune and allergic disorders by inhibiting the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines.

The novel part of the drug is that is in a class known as circadian cytokine modulator (CCM) which is taken at bedtime. The prednisone is released approximately 4 hours later and suppresses the night time pro-inflammatory cytokines. This results in reduction in early morning RA stiffness and pain.

Phase III studies on Lodotra™ were conducted on 288 patients in 26 European centers. The primary goal of the studies was the measure the improvement in morning stiffness. The results were published in the British medical journal The Lancet.

Nitec will next be seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is conducting another round of Phase II trials in support of that. Since prednisone is also used for treatment of other conditions, such as asthma and polymyalgia rheumatica, Nitec will conduct further studies aimed at approval of Lodotra™ for those conditions.

Originally posted 2009-01-08 13:05:50. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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