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A new study has confirmed the effectiveness of JAK inhibitors in treating rheumatoid arthritis. The Japanese multicenter, retrospective study found high remission and low disease activity rates among patients, with the majority continuing treatment. This success highlights the potential of JAK inhibitors as a favorable alternative to conventional treatments, which often lead to reduced effectiveness and discomfort over time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A new study published in the journal Rheumatology reveals that JAK inhibitors, commonly used to treat arthritis patients, are indeed effective. Despite initial concerns about their effectiveness, this multicenter, retrospective study conducted by Japanese researchers has shown impressive remission rates...

The amount of environmental exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAH for short, is strongly linked to a person's risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, suggests research. These chemicals, formed from the burning of coal, oil, gas, wood, or tobacco as well as the flame grilling of meat and other foods, also seem to account for most of smoking's impact on risk of the disease, the findings indicate. The researchers drew on the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 2007 and 2016. NHANES evaluates a wide variety of toxicants, along with data related to health, nutrition, behaviors and...

A large study of women with rheumatoid arthritis has found that those taking oral contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy (HRT) had a greater chance of achieving remission. The study revealed the following: Pre-menopausal women (those still experiencing a regular menstrual cycle) reported fewer RA symptoms than peri-menopausal (irregular or infrequent periods) or post-menopausal women with RA. RA patients using HRT or oral contraceptives in combination with the drugs prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis had a much greater likelihood of remission. Post-menopausal women, comprising 63% of the participants, of whom only 8% were using HRT, were less likely to achieve RA remission...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which causes painful swelling of the joints, is a form of autoimmune disease where otherwise healthy tissue in a patient's joint gets mistaken for an intruder and is attacked by the immune system. Past observational studies have confirmed a correlation between patients with RA and higher levels of periodontal disease (gum disease). Anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) are found in the blood of most patients with RA. Gum disease is specifically more common in individuals with RA who also have ACPAs in their blood. In a study, researchers wanted to investigate whether these overlapping observations could be better...

Passive exposure was broken down into three categories, including maternal smoking during pregnancy, parental smoking during childhood, and years lived with smokers since age 18. Even with personal smoking accounted for, passive exposure to parental smoking during childhood was found to increase risk of incident seropositive RA by 75-percent. "There has been intense interest in mucosal lung inflammation from personal smoking as a site of RA pathogenesis," said senior author Jeffrey A. Sparks, MD. "But the majority of RA patients aren't smokers, so we wanted to look at another inhalant that might precede RA." RA is an inflammatory disease characterized...

For most of us, the immune system works to protect us from bacteria, viruses, and other harmful pathogens. But for people with autoimmune conditions, the body's white blood cells instead perceive other cells and tissues in the body to be a threat and attacks them. While some immune disorders, like allergies, can sometimes be treated, autoimmune conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS) remain incurable. Our research has shown that you can stop the immune system attacking the nerves – which is what happens in MS. We did this by giving the immune system ever-increasing doses of the same molecule that...

A U.S. drug company did not openly share or perform further studies on a successful rheumatoid arthritis medicine that internal researchers suggested was reducing the risk of Alzheimer's disease by 64 percent, according to Washington Post article published Tuesday. Researchers at Pfizer reportedly urged the firm to conduct a clinical trial after finding the potential hidden benefit of the anti-inflammatory drug Enbrel while analyzing insurance claims. It was estimated to cost $80 million to conduct the trial, and Pfizer decided to pass. Pfizer told the Post it did not pursue the clinical trial because its success rate would likely be...

A POTENT new pill has been developed which harnesses the body’s natural inflammation-busting ability to beat crippling arthritis. The “smart” drug not only helps relieve the devastating joint inflammation which leaves sufferers in daily agony but researchers also say it has no side-effects. The breakthrough offers real hope that the hundreds of thousands of Britons struck down by rheumatoid arthritis could soon be treated with a powerful medication which uses their own body to fight the disease naturally. Current drug treatments, once the disease has taken hold, have unpleasant and potentially dangerous side-effects. Methotrexate, or MTX, is the standard treatment...

Protective protein prevents immune system from ravaging joints and bonesCHICAGO -- Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have discovered why the immune cells of people with rheumatoid arthritis become hyperactive and attack the joints and bones. The immune cells have lost their bouncer, the burly protein that keeps them in line the same way a bouncer in a nightclub controls rowdy patrons. The Feinberg School team has identified this bouncer, a protein called P21, which prevents immune cells from launching into their destructive rampage through the cartilage and bone. When the scientists developed and injected an imitation of...

New study shows GM-CSF reduces AD pathology and eliminates memory lossTampa, FL (August 23, 2010) -- A signaling protein released during rheumatoid arthritis dramatically reduced Alzheimer's disease pathology and reversed the memory impairment of mice bred to develop symptoms of the neurodegenerative disease, a new study by the University of South Florida reports. Researchers found that the protein, GM-CSF, likely stimulates the body's natural scavenger cells to attack and remove Alzheimer's amyloid deposits in the brain. The study appears online today in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. People with rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic disease leading to inflammation of joints and...

Women living in the northeastern United States are more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis (RA), suggesting a link between the autoimmune disease and vitamin D deficiency, says a new study led by a Boston University School of Public Health researcher. In the paper, which appears online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, a spatial analysis led by Dr. Verónica Vieira, MS, DSc, associate professor of environmental health, found that women in states like Vermont, New Hampshire and southern Maine were more likely to report being diagnosed with RA. "There's higher risk in the northern latitudes," Dr. Vieira said. "This might...

COPENHAGEN — Rheumatoid arthritis and two other rheumatic diseases are as strong as diabetes as risk factors for cardiovascular disease, prompting a European League Against Rheumatism task force to issue the group's first consensus recommendations for managing cardiovascular risk in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and psoriatic arthritis. “In our view, rheumatoid arthritis [RA], ankylosing spondylitis [AS], and psoriatic arthritis [PsA] should be seen as new, independent cardiovascular risk factors,” Dr. Michael T. Nurmohamed said at the annual European Congress of Rheumatology. “Very importantly, the risk is comparable to type 2 diabetes,” added Dr. Nurmohamed, a rheumatologist at the...

The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that it was investigating whether four drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other immune system diseases might increase the risk of cancer in children. The F.D.A. said that it had received reports of 30 cases of cancer over 10 years among children and young adults treated with those drugs, which are sold by Amgen, Abbott Laboratories and other companies. But the agency did not make clear how many children had taken the drugs or whether the cancer incidence among them was higher than would be expected. And it said that for now,...

Patients with common immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis could one day be treated with bone marrow transplants, scientists claimed yesterday. Hopes for the new treatment follow the development of a more efficient transplant technique which avoids the need for radio- or chemotherapy, both of which have potentially dangerous side-effects. Traditional bone marrow transplants are used to treat only life-threatening conditions, such as leukaemia or lymphoma. The treatment infuses healthy adult stem cells into the patient, which then form fresh blood and immune cells. But before the transplant can be done, patients must receive a course of...

U-M scientists find new genes linked to rheumatoid arthritis that are expressed differently in genetically identical twins Ann Arbor, Mich. -- They sleep together, eat together, and most people find it impossible to tell them apart. Identical twins who grow up together share just about everything, including their genes. But sometimes only one twin will have health problems when genetics predicts both of them should. Scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School are just beginning to understand how two people who are so similar biologically can be so different when it comes to the development of diseases like rheumatoid...

AP MEDICAL WRITER CHICAGO -- Rheumatoid arthritis patients taking Humira or Remicade face triple the risk of developing several kinds of cancer and double the risk of getting serious infections, a study led by the Mayo Clinic found. The analysis builds on previous reports about the risks associated with Abbott Laboratories' Humira and Centocor's Remicade. But the earlier research focused mostly on one kind of cancer - lymphoma - and infections such as tuberculosis and pneumonia. The new study found an apparent link to other cancers, too, including skin, gastrointestinal, breast and lung tumors. It also quantifies the risks and...

The drug trial victim whose head ballooned in size so much that his sobbing girlfriend said he resembled the Elephant Man said he couldn't resist the £2,000 fee for the tests. Mohammed Abdalla, 28, had planned to use his £2,000 fee for being a guinea pig to make his family in Egypt financially secure. He wanted to set up his brother Mahmood in business and look after his father, an imam, and desperately ill mother. Yesterday, as the London bar manager's dreams were disclosed, it emerged that scientists had warned about the damage the drug could do to human tissue...

ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON -- Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said the FDA has approved a new drug to treat moderate to severe cases of rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic disease that afflicts more than 2 million Americans. The drug, abatacept, is to be marketed as Orencia and is designed to be given intravenously. The company, based in New York, intends to start selling it by the end of February. The drug acts by suppressing part of the immune system to treat rheumatoid arthritis, which is marked by swelling, stiffness and pain in the linings of the joints. The linings become inflamed after the...

VITAL SIGNS Women who breast-feed have a lower risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, even decades later, researchers have found. And the longer they nurse their babies, the smaller the risk becomes. The findings grow out of the long-term Nurses' Health Study, which has followed the health of more than 120,000 women since 1976. The study, led by Dr. Elizabeth W. Karlson of Brigham and Women's Hospital, a Harvard affiliate, appears in the current issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism. Rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that can destroy the joints, affects women much more often than it does men. Some scientists have...

A marijuana-based medication for people suffering from multiple sclerosis and severe pain is expected to be approved for sale in Britain early this year, British officials say. The drug, Sativex, developed by GW Pharmaceuticals, a British company, is a liquid extract from marijuana grown by the company under license from the government. Developed to be sprayed under the tongue, it would be the first drug in recent decades to include all the components of the cannabis plant, advocates of medical marijuana say. The British agency that regulates pharmaceuticals does not like to discuss potential drugs before they are approved. The...