[…]
Arthritis News
Early Safety Study of Atacicept Shows Promise in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Atacicept is a recombinant fusion protein that binds and neutralizes two molecules important for the maturation, proliferation, and survival of B cells: BLyS and APRIL. While B-cell depleting therapies have demonstrated efficacy in RA, atacicept differs from the anti-CD20 targeted monoclonal antibodies, such as rituximab, as its effects extend over the entire lineage of B lymphocytes, including plasma cells.
Are TNF-Inhibitors Safe for Use in HIV Infected Patients?
HIV infected patients are at the same, or even greater, risk for developing inflammatory arthritis. However, the nature of their chronic infection and increased susceptibility to opportunistic infection have prompted most clinicians to avoid using TNF inhibitors in this patients population, even in settings in which their use would otherwise be appropriate, since only a few case reports have been published detailing treatment experiences.
Group Exercise, Education, and Combination Self-Management in Women with Fibromyalgia: A Randomized Trial
[…]
Knee Pain from Osteoarthritis related to change in Synovitis
Knee pain from osteoarthritis (OA) tends to be poorly correlated to degree of cartilage loss. Other factors related to knee OA, including bone marrow edema and synovitis, may be more proximal determinants of pain in knee OA. Synovitis is usually quite limited in knee OA and difficult to quantify on physical exam. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is a more sensitive technique for assessing synovitis in knee OA.
Novel Genetic Susceptibility Locus for Rheumatoid Arthritis identified from a Genome-Wide Association Study
A handful of genes which confer susceptibility to the development of RA are known, such as the HLA-DR “shared epitope” and variants in the PTPN22 gene. While these genes convey a relatively large degree of risk, identifying important genetic loci that convey more modest levels of risk have been a challenge due to the limitations of genetic research methods. Newer methods, such as the use of genome-wide association studies involving hundreds of thousands of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, can aid in the discrimination of genes with modest, yet potentially important and informative, effects on risk.
