Fatty acids – a new target for future rheumatoid arthritis treatment?
Targeting fatty acids could potentially be used to treat rheumatoid arthritis says new US research published in Cell Metabolism.
Experts found that the enzymes the body uses to turn carbohydrates into fats also have an impact on the health of neutrophils, which are specialist white blood cells that play an important role in inflammation.
Mice that were unable to make the necessary enzymes to create a certain type of fatty acid had very low white blood cell counts, including neutrophils. So targeting these fatty acids could perhaps reduce the number of neutrophils in inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Limiting (instead of eliminating) the fatty acids may be the best course of action as neutrophils also play an important role in fighting infections.
“We had never thought about treating rheumatoid arthritis or leukemia by targeting enzymes that produce fatty acids, but this work supports that line of thinking,” says Irfan Lodhi who is involved in the work.
Image credit: Hans Splinter
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