Novel approach may lead to new rheumatoid arthritis drugs

Inflammation is a normal function of our bodies, but if it is unregulated it can cause chronic disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Scientists from Queen Mary University of London, Barts and The London School of Medicine decided to take a fresh approach to the development of new drugs and looked to the ways that the body switches off inflammation.

“We found a receptor (a molecule usually found on the surface of a cell, that receives chemical signals from outside the cell) that stimulates the body’s natural defences against inflammation,” explains Prof Mauro Perretti, to Arthritis Digest. “We then studied how this receptor reduces inflammation and established its peculiar structural changes.”

The result? The team managed to develop synthetic molecules which are endowed with the same power as natural compounds to combat inflammation.

This research should help pave the way for the development of new anti-inflammatory drugs in the next decade, which will benefit people with rheumatoid arthritis.

“In the last few years, pharmaceutical companies have looked more closely at the concept of ‘resolution’ (exploiting natural mechanisms to weaken inflammatory reactions in the body),” Prof Perretti says. “Therefore we are confident that new drugs developed on this basis will emerge in due course.”

Visit  http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/10/08/1308253110.long to access the original research.