Rheumatoid arthritis pathophysiology: update on emerging cytokine and cytokine-associated cell targets.

ABSTRACT: Biologic therapies that target pathogenic cytokines such as TNF, IL-1β or IL-6 have greatly improved the treatment of RA. Unfortunately, not all RA patients respond to current biologic therapies and responses are not always maintained, suggesting that there are alternative drivers of RA pathogenesis that might serve as promising therapeutic targets. Discovery of the new Th17 subset of Th cells, and their role in autoimmune disease development, has implicated the proinflammatory IL-12 and IL-17 families of cytokines in RA disease pathogenesis. Members of these cytokine families are elevated in the blood and joints of RA patients and have been shown to remain elevated in patients who do not respond to current biologics. In addition, these cytokines have been shown to play roles in joint dest

SUBMITTER: Furst DE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4135582 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature