SAN FRANCISCO—Treatment for transthyretin-related amyloidosis (ATTR) is generating more interest from academic researchers and the pharmaceutical industry, with encouraging early results using a multi-pronged therapeutic approach, a researcher said at a review course held before the 2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. Amyloidoses are a rare and potentially deadly family of diseases in which misfolded protein builds…
SAN FRANCISCO—Behçet’s disease is a vasculitis that can be hard to pin down, with a wide variety of manifestations, many of which overlap with other auto-inflammatory conditions, an expert said at a clinical review course at the 2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. The most common feature is oral ulcers, which are expected to be seen at…
SAN FRANCISCO—Metabolomics could one day be a treasure map of information about inflammation in rheumatic disease. There are many metabolic pathways to pursue for clues on how to reverse this damaging process. “All of these signaling pathways are interrelated and affect each other,” said Douglas J. Veale, MD, director of translational research at Dublin Academic…
SAN FRANCISCO—To help rheumatologists better understand the underlying mechanisms of autoimmune diseases, Mark Anderson, MD, PhD, professor of adult endocrinology, University of California, San Francisco, spoke during the 2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting on ways in which immune regulation and tolerance work to ensure health in individuals who maintain tolerance to self-antigens and how these processes…
SAN FRANCISCO—To date, evidence on the efficacy of blocking the cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and its receptors in autoimmune diseases has resulted in the approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of five anti-TNF agents. Less well known, according to Richard Siegel, MD, PhD, chief, Immunoregulation Section, Autoimmunity Branch, and Clinical Director, NIAMS,…
The results of a new study examined the human osteoclast-associated receptor may aid in the development of therapeutic matrikines to control aberrant osteoclastogenesis in some autoimmune diseases…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) show imbalance in their fungal intestinal microbiota, according to new findings. “The fungal microbiota is a new actor to take into account in the pathogenesis of IBD and potentially in other diseases,” Dr. Harry Sokol of Hospital Saint-Antoine in Paris, an author of the new study,…
A recent study used MRI to show that tofacitinib reduces inflammation and inhibition of the progression of structural damage in adults with early RA…
(Reuters Health)—Breathing textile dust on the job is linked to an almost tripled risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a Malaysian study suggests. While smoking is a known risk factor for RA, the findings add to evidence suggesting that environmental factors could trigger RA in some people, the researchers note in their report in Annals…
Researchers have created a microdevice with Caco-2 intestinal epithelial cells to aid in studying the human gut microbiome’s role in homeostasis, immune modulation and pathology. Using this gut-on-a-chip, researchers were able to examine in detail the processes they think result in chronic intestinal inflammation…