A follow-up to "Anti-cytokine therapy in chronic destructive arthritis" by Wim B van den Berg

Description

In recent years, the effectiveness of anti-TNF therapy in treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has become apparent. While trials of IL-1 receptor antagonist in RA have been encouraging, it clearly is more difficult to target two molecules (IL-1 α and β) than one (TNF-α). In his review article, Professor Wim van den Berg argues that both TNF-α and IL-1 must be blocked in RA and that although TNF is clearly a potent inflammatory molecule, the dominant cytokine in the subsequent degradation of the joint tissue is IL-1. This commentary discusses his hypothesis in light of animal studies and the limitations of the conclusions that can be drawn from them. More broadly, it discusses the biology of TNF-α and IL-1 and suggests explanations of why TNF-α is a pivotal cytokine in this disease.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
21 Visit the original government dataset for complete information, documentation, and data access. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC128897/

Tags

  • rheumatoid-arthritis
  • cytokine-therapy
  • nih
  • anti-tnf-therapy
  • il-1-antagonist

Topics

Categories