Inhibiting spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) -- a key mediator of immunoreceptor cell signals in the synovium of patients with rheumatoid arthritis -- may offer a new therapeutic option for RA, a phase II study suggested.
The randomized trial, conducted among more than 450 patients with active RA, found that significantly more patients who received 100 mg twice a day of the Syk inhibitor R788 saw their disease improve by 20% at six months compared with patients on placebo (67% versus 35%, P<0.001), according to Michael E. Weinblatt, MD, of Harvard Medical School, and colleagues.
In addition, the rate of disease remission at six months reached 31% in patients assigned to twice-daily R788 compared with only 7% among those assigned to placebo, the investigators reported online in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Syk, a major mediator of immunoreceptor cell signaling, is present in the synovium of RA patients, and its activation is important for the production of cytokines and metalloproteinases induced by tumor necrosis factor alpha.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Rheumatology/Arthritis/22354