Autoimmunity News

Friday, March 25, 2005 Genetic Variation Helps Predict Response to Etanercept in Rheumatoid Arthritis
As the FDA takes action to speed the clinical application of pharmacogenetics, the possibility of personalized medicine for RA patients got a boost from a new study showing that a polymorphism in TNF-α affects the response to etanercept therapy...Kang CP, et al. Rheumatology. 2005;44:547-552.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005 IL-1 Blocker Anakinra Safe and Effective in Small Study of Severe Lupus Arthritis Patients
Accumulating evidence suggests that anakinra may find a niche in IL-1-driven diseases such as juvenile arthritis, adult onset Still's disease, and severe lupus arthritis...Ostendorf B, et al. Ann Rheum Dis. 2005;64:630-633.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 IL-6 Blocker "Promising" in Systemic Onset Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
Small study demonstrating efficacy and safety of MRA in juvenile arthritis, combined with promising results in treatment of other conditions, suggests that IL-6 inhibitors may play an important role in controlling inflammatory disease...Yokota S, et al. Arthritis Rheum. 2005;52:818-825.

Monday, March 14, 2005 Novel Estrogenic Agonist May Suppress Inflammation
Preclinical and Phase I data suggest that an estrogen receptor beta-agonist, ERB-041, may have potent anti-inflammatory properties without classic estrogenic effects...American College of Rheumatology 2005 Innovative Therapies in Autoimmune Disease Meeting, Washington, DC, March 4-6, 2005.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005 New Findings Confirm Predictive Power of Cyclic Citrullinated Peptide Antibodies in Patients With Very Early Rheumatoid Arthritis
Study offers further evidence that the presence of antibodies to CCP in addition to RF in patients with early inflammatory arthropathy can forecast the development of RA... Raza K, et al. J Rheumatol. 2005;32:231-238.

Thursday, February 17, 2005 Anti-CCP Antibodies Detected in Psoriatic Arthritis Patients
New research suggests that the specificity of this marker may lead to more precise diagnostic criteria for this broad spectrum disease...Vander Cruyssen B, et al. Ann Rheum Dis. 2005. [Epub ahead of print]

Thursday, February 10, 2005 Anti-TNF Therapy Does Not Increase Overall Cancer Risk in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis, but Is Linked to Higher Number of Lymphomas
Swedish researchers note that the types of lymphomas, including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and Hodgkin's disease, were in line with those recently reported in RA patients...Geborek P, et al. Ann Rheum Dis. 2005

Thursday, February 03, 2005 Crohn's Disease Patients With Attenuated Response to Infliximab May Respond to Adalimumab
Mimicking the paradigm seen with TNF-blockade in rheumatoid arthritis, preliminary data suggest that switching infliximab nonresponders to adalimumab may improve the clinical response and reduce disease activity...Papadakis KA. Am J Gastroenterol. 2005;100:75-79.

Monday, January 31, 2005 Genetic Discovery May Lead to New Lupus Treatments
Two newly discovered genes may help lupus researchers crack the interferon code, leading to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of SLE and to novel drug targets... Sigurdsson S, et al. Am J Hum Genet. 2005;18:76-79.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005 Next Generation of Antibody-Based Designer Biologics in Development
Trubion announces first Phase I study of small modular immunopharmaceutical SMIP technology in rheumatoid arthritis…