Gleevec shown to prevent rheumatoid arthritis in mice
This is somewhat unexpected:
Although there are two documented cases in which individuals taking imatinib to treat their cancer showed clinical improvement in their RA, there had been no study of the effects of imatinib in a mouse pre-clinical model of RA. So, William Robinson and colleagues administered imatinib to mice with an RA-like disease. Imatinib both prevented the onset of disease and the development of established disease. It did this by inhibiting the function of many of the immune cells that contribute to disease in patients with RA. Importantly, imatinib was also shown to inhibit the proliferation of cells taken from the joints of patients with RA. This study indicates that imatinib might provide relief to the many individuals suffering from RA.
Somewhat unrelated, but what would you do for a patient who develops RA after he starts treatment for his newly-discovered HIV? Talk about contraindications!
[tags]Medicine, pharmacy, Gleevec, rheumatoid arthritis, arthritis[/tags]
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