Suicide molecule can halt rheumatoid arthritis

A researcher from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has developed a new way to halt and even reverse rheumatoid arthritis. Harris Perlman, the lead author and an associate professor of medicine at Feinberg, remarked that this new therapy inhibits the disease cold in 75 percent of the mice.

The finding is related to the development of an imitation of a suicide molecule that floats without being identified into overactive immune cells responsible for the disease.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Perlman discovered that immune cells in rheumatoid arthritis are low in a critical molecule called Bim, whose job is to order the cells to self-destruct. To correct that shortage, Perlman developed an imitation of the molecule, called BH3 mimetic. When Harris injected his drug into mice with rheumatoid arthritis, it floated ghostlike into their macrophages and bam!, the misbehaving immune cells self destructed.

In his research, Harris showed the molecule could prevent the development of rheumatoid arthritis as well as trigger a remission of existing disease. After the drug was injected in animals with the disease, joint swelling was reduced and bone destruction decreased.

Current treatments for rheumatoid arthritis include low-level chemotherapy and steroids. These are not always effective, however, and they are frequently accompanied by side effects. A newer class of therapy, which is sometimes used in combination with chemotherapy and steroids, is biologic response modifiers. These are antibodies or other proteins that reduce the inflammation produced by the hyperactive immune cells. These biologics don’t work for everyone, though, and can be associated with side effects including the risk of infection.

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

Tags: chemotherapy, rheumatoid arthritis, Steroids