is arthritis curable in early stage

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Mikuls TR, ODell J. The development of this therapeutic approach was based on two assumptions. Learn more Machold KP, Nell VP, Stamm TA, et al. Very few published studies have addressed the issue of therapy within the first few months of symptom onset. Tak et al have compared RA patients with symptoms of less than 1 year duration with patients with longer standing disease. Dougados M, Combe B, Cantagrel A, et al. Edwards JC, Szczepanski L, Szechinski J, et al. Natural remission in inflammatory polyarthritis: issues of definition and prediction. A clinicopathologic study during the first month of disease. An alternative approach to this problem is to target the subgroup of patients with very early synovitis who are at high risk of the development of RA with potent anti-inflammatory therapy. Raza K, Breese M, Nightingale P, et al. Bukhari M, Harrison B, Lunt M, et al. The American Rheumatism Association 1987 revised criteria for the classification of rheumatoid arthritis. The very early phase of RA, within 3 months of symptom onset, is characterised by very low levels of lymphocyte and neutrophil apoptosis within the synovial compartment (unpublished observations).

Wolfe F, Hawley DJ. IL-13, for example, induces proliferation and CD154 (CD40 ligand) expression in lung fibroblasts65,66 and is important in inducing fibrosis in T helper Type 2 (Th2)-mediated diseases such as schistosomiasis.67 In addition, both IL-4 and IL-13 protect synoviocytes against nitric oxide (NO)-induced apoptosis.68 The pro-survival and proliferative effects of these cytokines may thus be important in the development of the expanded fibroblast network that occurs during early disease and which characterises established RA.17 The presence of significant levels of the autocrine synovial fibroblast growth factors, bFGF and EGF69, would clearly support this process. In fact, work from our group and others suggests that inflammatory cells are actively retained in the joint through the upregulation of the chemokine receptor chemokine (C-X-C motif) receptor 4 (CXCR4) by stromal-derived transforming growth factor (TGF)-.19 Within the established rheumatoid synovium, T cells play an important contact-dependent role in driving TNF- production by synovial macrophages.56,57. In conclusion, many studies of patients with established RA of <12 years duration show that initial combination DMARD therapy (often with a steroid) leads to better control of disease activity and a reduction in the progression of erosions compared with monotherapy. : 1950). The effect of thoracic duct drainage on lymphocyte dynamics and clinical symptoms in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Genovese MC, Becker JC, Schiff M, et al. TNF-blocking therapies: an alternative mode of action? Most trials of early therapy have chosen a maximum symptom duration of 2 years. Similarly, the BeSt trial looked at patients with RA of <2 years duration (median duration 23 weeks).48 Aggressive therapy with regimens that included either infliximab and methotrexate or high dose prednisolone together with methotrexate and sulphasalazine was associated with improved clinical and radiological outcomes compared with a less aggressive initial approach to therapy (sequential monotherapy or a step-up approach).48 Of those patients initially treated with infliximab, 50% were eventually able to stop anti-TNF- therapy because of persistently low disease activity (DAS44 2.4 for at least 6 months). CONFLICTS OF INTEREST K.R. Kroot EJ, de Jong BA, van Leeuwen MA, et al. There is increasing interest in the treatment of early RA with anti-TNF- drugs. Early treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with adalimumab (HUMIRA) plus methotrexate vs. adalimumab alone or methotrexate alone: The Premier study. Serhan CN, Savill J. Secondly, that DMARDs were too toxic for wide-spread use. The first 3 months of symptoms in RA thus represents a biologically distinct phase of the disease. However, it is unlikely that the B cell alone is at the core of sustaining the disease process and it is likely that, if used, anti-B cell therapies would form part of a broader anti-inflammatory strategy. National Library of Medicine

It is likely that the high levels of common- chain cytokines (IL-2, IL-4 and IL-15) and of granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) and granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) that we have reported in the very early rheumatoid lesion contribute to lymphocyte and neutrophil survival in this phase of disease, allowing accumulation of these cells. Kaufman J, Sime PJ, Phipps RP. Capell HA, Madhok R, Hunter JA, et al. Quinn MA, Conaghan PG, OConnor PJ, et al. Aggressive treatment after the first 34 months of symptoms, with either disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs or anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF)- therapy, reduces the rate of disease progression. Klareskog L, van der Heijde D, de Jager JP, et al. However, it rarely switches off disease such that remission can be maintained without the continued need for immunosuppressive therapy. Konttinen YT, Bergroth V, Nordstrom D, et al. Firestein GS. addressed this issue in a pilot study of five patients with poor prognosis RA and disease of <1 year duration (mean 7 months).46 Patients were treated with high dose infliximab (10 mg/kg at weeks 0, 2, 6 and 10) together with methotrexate. and transmitted securely. High incidence of cardiovascular events in a rheumatoid arthritis cohort not explained by traditional cardiac risk factors.

Patients in the combination group were treated with oral prednisolone (initially at 60 mg daily tapered over 6 weeks to 7.5 mg daily and then stopped after 28 weeks), oral methotrexate (which was stopped after 40 weeks) and sulphasalazine. Quantitative analysis of immunohistologic features of very early rheumatoid synovitis in disease modifying antirheumatic drug- and corticosteroid-naive patients. Is the pathology of very early RA, with symptoms of less than 3 months duration, different from that found in later disease? Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is common and leads to joint damage due to persistent synovitis. Cultured synovial fibroblasts have a global gene expression profile that is quite different from that of lymph node and tonsil fibroblasts.70 However, the addition of IL-4 to synovial fibroblasts dramatically modulates their gene expression profile, which converges with that of fibroblasts from secondary lymphoid tissue.70 The synovial environment in early RA may modulate fibroblast function leading to the production of factors facilitating the formation of the lymphoid aggregates that characterise established RA.71. Bathon JM, Martin RW, Fleischmann RM, et al. The ability to distinguish resolving disease from synovitis that persists and develops into RA is thus essential in the management of very early RA. The resolution of such inflammatory responses is an active and coordinated process involving the ordered production of anti-inflammatory mediators such as lipid-derived lipoxins and resolvins.49 In chronic inflammation, this resolution phase becomes disordered and fibroblast activation and hyperplasia contribute to the persistence of the inflammatory infiltrate.1519 In synovium from patients with established RA, infiltrating lymphocytes are frequently organised into microstructures that resemble the lymphoid aggregates found in secondary lymphoid organs.50 The chronically inflamed rheumatoid synovium is, therefore, a highly stable microenvironment which inappropriately mimics many of the structural and functional features of lymphoid tissue.51, The mechanisms underlying the maintenance of persistent inflammation have been relatively well defined. Two ongoing European placebo-controlled randomised trials (STIVEA and SAVE) are comparing the effects of low dose intramuscular depomedrone injections in patients with very early synovitis. Resolution is mediated by the cessation of recruitment of further inflammatory cells and the clearance of unwanted effector cells.

Low-dose prednisolone in addition to the initial disease-modifying antirheumatic drug in patients with early active rheumatoid arthritis reduces joint destruction and increases the remission rate: a two-year randomized trial. Immunohistological analysis of the synovium, including an assessment of the expression of interleukin (IL)-1, TNF- and IL-6, as well as infiltration with CD4+ve and CD8+ve cells, CD22+ve B cells, CD38+ve plasma cells, mast cells, macrophages and fibroblasts did not reveal any differences between early (mean disease duration 6 months) and longstanding RA.61 In addition, subgroup analysis comparing histological scores in patients with a disease duration of <6 months and those with disease of 712 months duration did not yield any statistically significant differences. Scott DL, Symmons DP, Coulton BL, Popert AJ. Five-year follow-up of rheumatoid arthritis patients after early treatment with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs versus treatment according to the pyramid approach in the first year. Cytokine-mediated inhibition of apoptosis in non-transformed T cells and neutrophils can be dissociated from protein kinase B activation. The aim of these studies is to assess whether the early use of steroid can induce remission and the results are awaited with great interest. Persistence of mild, early inflammatory arthritis: the importance of disease duration, rheumatoid factor, and the shared epitope. Benefit of very early referral and very early therapy with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis.

Raza K, Falciani F, Curnow SJ, et al. This controls synovitis and slows the rate of subsequent disease progression. An official website of the United States government. The levels of a range of T cell, macrophage and stromal cell related cytokines (IL-2, IL-4, IL-13, IL-15, basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF)) were significantly elevated in these patients, within 3 months after symptom onset. In addition more aggressive therapy within the first 12 years of disease may slow the rate of subsequent disease progression. Those studies that have shown benefit from early combination therapy have used steroids, albeit in different regimens.12,31,33 Steroids certainly allow a more rapid control of synovitis than conventional DMARDs, explaining their incorporation in step-down regimes. Indeed it is an appreciation of the fact that up to 50% of patients with early synovitis will spontaneously enter remission that is likely to have limited the potency of the therapeutic approaches adopted to date in relatively unselected cohorts of patients with very early inflammatory arthritis. K.R., C.D.B. TNF defined as a therapeutic target for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. Jakubzick C, Choi ES, Kunkel SL, et al. Nevertheless, the difference in cumulative disease activity between the groups was associated with less radiological deterioration in the combination group by week 56. The time frames within which the effects of therapy have been studied in most trials of early intervention in RA have been somewhat arbitrarily defined and have been based on the principle of the earlier the better (assuming the patient has definitely developed RA). Relic B, Guicheux J, Mezin F, et al. Suzuki Y, Rahman M, Mitsuya H. Diverse transcriptional response of CD4(+) T cells to stromal cell-derived factor (SDF)-1: cell survival promotion and priming effects of SDF-1 on CD4(+) T cells. failed to show a significant difference in radiological progression between early DMARD therapy and the pyramid approach to treatment.37 However, in that study more patients in the NSAID group were treated with oral and intra-articular steroid than in the DMARD group, so the real therapeutic differences between the groups may not have been sufficiently large to translate into clinical effects at 5 years. Il-4 and IL-13, but not IL-10, protect human synoviocytes from apoptosis. Svensson B, Boonen A, Albertsson K, et al.

acts as a consultant for Wyeth and UCB Celltech. Cellular immunohistopathology of acute, subacute, and chronic synovitis in rheumatoid arthritis. Similarly, a study of patients with RA of <12 months duration showed no benefit of combined methotrexate and sulphasalazine compared with each treatment alone.36 In addition, a few studies have shown no long-term benefit from initial combination therapy.37,38 For example, the 5-year follow-up of patients in the study by van der Heide et al. ct lymphoma scan neck head emedicine hodgkins nk lymphomas hodgkin cancer workup nasal non cavity patient maxillary