Tag Archives: autoimmune disorders

Jab to halt rheumatoid arthritis

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A POWERFUL new jab that can halt and even prevent arthritis is a step closer after a breakthrough by scientists.

They have created a potent “infusion” using cells that regulate the body’s immune system.

This shuts down the “cascade of inflammation” that damages joints and tissues. The development will bring hope to hundreds of thousands of Britons left in daily agony by rheumatoid arthritis.

Even weeks after the jab was administered, tests showed the arthritis process was dramatically slowed when the infusion was combined with a low dose of methotrexate, the current “gold standard” treatment.

A spokeswoman for Arthritis Research UK said: “This type of treatment would be of particular interest as it prevents the causes of disease development as opposed to merely masking the symptoms.”

At present there is no cure for the crippling disease, although a number of treatments can help slow its progress. These can have unpleasant and potentially dangerous side-effects, however, and their aim is often solely to minimise joint damage.

Finding a treatment which actually stops the disease in its tracks would be a revolutionary breakthrough.

Experts at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, say their discovery holds the promise of just such a breakthrough for patients with arthritis and other autoimmune disorders.

Dr Harvey Cantor said: “We found we could almost completely inhibit the disease in this setting.”

Arthritis

Arthritis

The scientists at Dana-Farber used infusions of regulatory T cells to stop the body’s immune system attacking joints. Their trials on mice are reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. T cells are a type of white blood cell that can recognise and attack foreign invaders, allowing the body to fight disease.

The T regulatory cells, or Tregs, play an important role in turning off an immune response when it is no longer needed, such as after the body has repelled viral or bacterial invaders.

In autoimmune disorders, parts of the immune system attack healthy cells.


Nearly 10 million people in Britain are blighted by incurable arthritis. Osteo­arthritis affects at least 8.5 million. Rheumatoid arthritis, where the immune system attacks the joints, affects about 700,000.

Inflammation affects many tissues, frequently causing painful and deformed fingers and hands, swelling, stiffness, fatigue and disability.

Ailsa Bosworth, chief executive of the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, said: “There is a wealth of fantastic research going on in the field of rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmunity and this is another example of this.

“We very much welcome these new findings and hope that this important and exciting work will translate ultimately into an effective treatment.

“In spite of great advances in treating rheumatoid arthritis in recent years, there remains major unmet need and so research such as this is vital.”

Arthritis Research UK said: “The data from laboratory experiments is promising. However, this research is still in the early stages and has not yet been developed into a treatment that can be tested in clinical trials.”

Sleep apnoea linked to autoimmune disorders

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Snoring heavily almost doubles the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, a new study shows.

Researchers found patients diagnosed with the snoring-related condition sleep apnoea were nearly twice as likely to suffer the joint-damaging disease.

The discovery, which comes from research carried out in Taiwan, is something of a surprise as rheumatoid arthritis – which affects around 350,000 people in the UK – is thought to be triggered when something goes wrong with the immune system.

The same study found a similar increase in the risk of other so-called autoimmune disorders, where the body’s defences start to attack healthy tissues.

Scientists said they believe the explanation lies in the fact that chronic sleep apnoea can lead to inflammation in blood vessels throughout the body, which may act as a catalyst for arthritis.

Although previous studies have suggested sleep apnoea may raise the risk of heart attacks, the latest investigation is the first to show a link with arthritis.

An estimated three million people in Britain suffer with sleep apnoea, though many more may remain undiagnosed.

As sleep begins, the muscles in the airway relax. For most people this does not pose a problem but in sleep apnoea, it leads to a complete collapse which shuts off breathing for at least ten seconds.

It also disrupts breathing and triggers the sound of snoring as air vibrates against the soft tissue that stands in its way.

Once the brain realises breathing has stopped it sends out a signal for the airway muscles to contract again.

This opens the airway and the sufferer normally wakes with a jolt. In mild sleep apnoea, this can happen about once every ten minutes. If it’s severe, it means sleep can be disturbed every couple of minutes.

Rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis

Very few people remember waking up at all because they fall asleep again within seconds.

Yet the cumulative effect is that they feel exhausted during the day, putting them at increased risk of accidents. Being overweight is one of the major risk factors.

In the latest study, by experts at the Taipei Medical University, 1,411 sleep apnoea patients were compared to a 7,000-strong group of healthy adults.

Over a five-year period, researchers monitored how many in each group went on to develop rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and systemic lupus erythematous – all conditions where the immune system goes haywire and causes swollen, painful joints and flu-like symptoms.


The results, published in the journal Sleep Medicine, showed the snoring-affected group were 91 per cent more likely to develop one of the three conditions.

However, the researchers stressed that the absolute risk of falling ill was still small. Out of the snoring patients, only 2.91 percent experienced arthritis-related problems.

In a report on their findings the researchers said: ‘Our study is the first to investigate the association between sleep apnoea and the development of autoimmune diseases.

‘We think this may have gone unnoticed in clinical settings because these cases are relatively rare and may not be reported.

‘But the potential link between these two conditions should not be overlooked. Among the diseases we studied, rheumatoid arthritis had the highest risk of developing in sleep apnoea patients.’

As well as inflamed and swollen joints, arthritis sufferers also experience flu-like symptoms. In very severe cases, they can end up crippled and unable to live a full life.

But diagnosing the condition can be difficult as the early signs can be as innocuous as a slight stiffness in hand joints, often early in the morning.