COPENHAGEN, June 15 -- Recent insights into the processes driving the autoimmune attack underlying rheumatoid arthritis are leading to promising new classes of treatments, researchers said here.
At a session at the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) meeting, European and Chinese scientists described a variety of novel approaches to the disease that could, within a few years, add to the range of options now available to clinicians and patients.
Moreover, these "new" targets are not really new at all, except in the context of rheumatoid arthritis. They include granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and transforming growth factor-beta, both familiar in the cancer world.
Signaling pathways activated by these proteins help drive the proliferation and differentiation of immune cells involved in rheumatoid arthritis.
And a growing body of evidence suggests that a certain type of stem cells may be effective in rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases -- not by sparking growth of new tissue, but through recently recognized immunoregulatory powers that these cells seem to have.
A drug candidate for rheumatoid arthritis has already emerged for the GM-CSF pathway, with phase I clinical results reported at EULAR.
Gerd Burmester, M.D., of Humboldt University in Berlin, said a monoclonal antibody called CAM-3001 had shown good enough results in this early study that additional clinical testing would be performed.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Rheumatology/Arthritis/14697