14 DAY TRIAL // A group of investigators has engineered a new protein, which the experts say can be used to stop the development of rheumatoid arthritis dead in its tracks. It may even be that the molecule could in the future be used to cure the condition altogether.
What this protein does is it inhibits molecules in the joints that cause inflammation, swelling and tremendous pains in people suffering from this dreaded disease. The new investigation was carried out exclusively on unsuspecting lab mice.
However, the small rodents offer a potent model for how the condition acts and develops in the human body, say investigators from the New York University, led by rheumatology researcher Chuanju Liu.
RA occurs when the human immune system misfires, and attacks the body's own joints, damaging them extensively over long periods of time. The condition leads to deformities which severely impair sufferers, and reduce their quality of life considerably.
At this point, the most advanced drugs developed to fight rheumatoid arthritis are effective in only a little over 50 percent of all patients. In the other half, the therapies have no demonstrable result.
Researchers say that the main target of anti-RA medication today is the inflammatory molecule tumor necrosis factor (TNF), which in involved in regulating the overall functions of the immune system.
It is involved in such conditions as cancer and multiple sclerosis, but experts believe it may play a larger role in other severe conditions as well, Technology Review reports. Scientists estimate that RA costs sufferers in excess of $20,000 yearly.
The new anti-TNF protein can be fashioned at only a small fraction of that costs, because it targets the molecule in a very specific fashion. NYU researchers announced the breakthrough online, in the latest issue of the top journal Science.
“For early, mild arthritis, our molecule can completely prevent inflammation – it somehow reverses disease progression,” Liu explains. He led the 20-scientist team behind the accomplishment.
“The results are really spectacular. It looks like [they've found] a new pathway for the treatment of inflammatory arthritis,” comments Harvard Medical School rheumatology expert Paul Anderson.
The scientist, who also holds an appointment at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, was not a part of the new investigation. “It provides a really strong foundation for moving on to the next step,” he goes on to say.