scholarly journals Interleukin 6 and Rheumatoid Arthritis

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuji Yoshida ◽  
Toshio Tanaka

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a representative cytokine featuring pleiotropic activity and redundancy. A transient synthesis of IL-6 contributes to host defense against infectious agents and tissue injuries by inducing acute phase reactions and immunological and hematopoietic responses. However, uncontrolled persistent production of IL-6 may lead to the development of several immune-mediated diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease with joint and systemic inflammation resulting from immunological abnormalities and it has been found that IL-6 plays a key role in the development of this disease. Clinical trials in various parts of the world of tocilizumab, a humanized anti-IL-6 receptor antibody, have proved its efficacy and tolerable safety either as monotherapy or in combination with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. As a result, it is currently used as a first-line biologic for the treatment of moderate-to-severe RA in more than 100 countries. Clarification of the mechanism(s) through which tocilizumab exerts its effect on RA and of the reason(s) why IL-6 is continuously produced in RA can be expected to lead to the best use of this agent for RA patients and aid in investigations into the pathogenesis of RA.

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. CMAMD.S5558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pradeep Kumar ◽  
Snehashish Banik

Drugs form the mainstay of therapy in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Five main classes of drugs are currently used: analgesics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs), glucocorticoids, nonbiologic and biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. Current clinical practice guidelines recommend that clinicians start biologic agents if patients have suboptimal response or intolerant to one or two traditional disease modifying agents (DMARDs). Methotrexate, sulfasalazine, leflunomide and hydroxychloroquine are the commonly used DMARDs. Currently, anti-TNF is the commonly used first line biologic worldwide followed by abatacept and it is usually combined with MTX. There is some evidence that tocilizumab is the most effective biologic as a monotherapy agent. Rituximab is generally not used as a first line biologic therapy due to safety issues but still as effective as anti-TNF. The long term data for the newer oral small molecule biologics such as tofacitinib is not available and hence used only as a last resort.


2016 ◽  
Vol 88 (12) ◽  
pp. 4-10
Author(s):  
E L Nasonov

The paper considers a current strategy, international and Russian recommendations for the pharmacotherapy of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), one of the most common and severe human immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. It emphasizes the need for early diagnosis and therapy with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, primarily methotrexate (MT), starting at the onset of the disease, and careful monitoring of therapeutic effectiveness, allowing RA remission to be achieved with a treatment-to-target strategy. The author discusses recent RA pharmacotherapy advances that are related to the rational use of MT, biological agents, and the new targeted JAK inhibitor tofacitinib.


BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. e021447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ettore Silvagni ◽  
Alessandra Bortoluzzi ◽  
Greta Carrara ◽  
Anna Zanetti ◽  
Marcello Govoni ◽  
...  

ObjectiveThese analyses aim to comparatively evaluate the persistence on treatment of different biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) when administered in monotherapy compared with combination with conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients receiving first-line biologics.DesignThis is a retrospective observational study on Administrative Healthcare Databases.MethodsData were extracted from healthcare databases of the Lombardy Region, Italy (2004–2013), as a part of the RECord-linkage On Rheumatic Diseases study, on behalf of the Italian Society for Rheumatology. Analyses included patients with RA starting first-line approved course of bDMARDs and evaluated drug survival by using Cox proportional hazard models. Results are presented as HRs and 95% CI, crude and adjusted for prespecified confounders (age, sex, disease duration, Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), previous infections, use of concomitant glucocorticoids or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)).Results4478 patients with RA were included (17.84% monotherapy). Etanercept, adalimumab and infliximab were the most prescribed first-line biologics. bDMARD monotherapy was associated with longer disease duration, higher CCI, lower glucocorticoids and NSAIDs use. Compared with monotherapy, combination associated with a lower risk of failure (adjusted HR 0.79, 95% CI 0.72 to 0.88). Among monotherapies, considering etanercept as reference, adalimumab (1.28, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.59) and infliximab (2.41, 95% CI 1.85 to 3.15) had higher risk of failure. Concomitant methotrexate (0.78, 95% CI 0.70 to 0.87), leflunomide (0.80, 95% CI 0.65 to 0.98) or csDMARD combinations (0.77, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.87) reduced the risk of bDMARD withdrawal.ConclusionAdalimumab and infliximab monotherapies show lower retention rate compared with etanercept. The relatively small number of therapeutic courses different from tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors makes more difficult to achieve conclusive results with other biologics. Concomitant methotrexate, leflunomide and csDMARDs combination associate with longer survival on bDMARD. Our data confirm the effectiveness of the current practices in the choice of etanercept as first-line anti-TNF monotherapy and strengthen the currently recommended use of bDMARDs in combination with csDMARDs.


Author(s):  
Valentina Perrone ◽  
Serena Losi ◽  
Veronica Rogai ◽  
Silvia Antonelli ◽  
Walid Fakhouri ◽  
...  

This study aimed to evaluate the treatment patterns and pharmacoutilization of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in real-world settings in Italy. This retrospective observational analysis was based on administrative databases of selected Italian entities. All adult patients with RA diagnosis confirmed by ≥1 discharge diagnosis of RA (ICD-9-CM code = 714.0) or an active exemption code (006.714.0) were enrolled in 2019. Two cohorts were created: one included patients prescribed baricitinib, the other those prescribed biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs). Overall, 47,711 RA patients were identified, most of them without DMARD prescription. As a first-line prescription, 43.2% of patients were prescribed conventional synthetic DMARDs (csDMARDs), 5.2% bDMARDs and 0.3% baricitinib. In 2019, 82.6% of csDMARD users continued with the same DMARD category, 15.9% had a bDMARD, while 1.5% had baricitinib as second-line therapy. Overall, 445 patients used baricitinib during 2019. During follow-up, baricitinib was prescribed as monotherapy to 31% of patients, as cotreatment with csDMARDs and corticosteroids to 27% of patients, with corticosteroids to 28% of patients and with csDMARDs to 14% of patients. In line with previous findings, a trend of bDMARD undertreatment was observed. The treatment patterns of baricitinib patients could help to better characterize patients eligible for new therapeutic options that will be available in the future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Hill ◽  
Nina Frey

Nine evidence-based guidelines were identified that recommend the use of conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs as a first-line therapy for patients with rheumatoid arthritis prior to using biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs or Janus kinase inhibitors. Methotrexate monotherapy was the most commonly recommended conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug recommended as first-line therapy by the included guidelines. Eight of the included guidelines recommend combination therapy using multiple conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs if monotherapy is ineffective and 4 included guidelines recommend the use of glucocorticoids in combination with conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-33
Author(s):  
Assia Haddouche ◽  
◽  
Samy Slimani ◽  
Bilal Bengana ◽  
Imen Bencharif ◽  
...  

The management of rheumatoid arthritis has not stopped evolving after the advent of new effective therapies and the emergence of new concepts such as tight control, early and aggressive treatment with a target of remission, or at least low disease activity. Strategies to follow are now well codified by the new recommendations of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) 2013, which clearly emphasized that conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) with methotrexate as a leader are the first-line therapies to use in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 862.2-863
Author(s):  
M. K. Chung ◽  
J. S. Park ◽  
H. S. Lim ◽  
C. H. Lee ◽  
J. Lee

Background:Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) predominantly affects women and has a significant impact on childbearing. Several population-based studies identifying incidence, prevalence, and medication use of RA have been reported, yet epidemiological studies focusing on women with RA in childbearing years are missing.Objectives:We aimed to identify the incidence, prevalence and medication use of RA among Korean women in childbearing years.Methods:From National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) data (2009-2016), containing inpatient and outpatient claim information for approximately 97% of the Korean population, we identified 9,217,139 women aged between 20-44 years. Incidence and prevalence of RA in the specific sociodemographic group of women in childbearing age were analyzed, and the prevalence of medication prescription were compared between women with RA and controls without rheumatic diseases such as RA, systemic lupus erythematosus, and ankylosing spondylitis. Individuals with RA were defined by the presence of International Classification of Disease, 10th revision code, M05. The medication use was defined as receiving > 90days prescriptions of NSAIDs, corticosteroids (CSs), and conventional synthetic (cs) disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) or > 1day prescription of biologic (b) DMARDs.Results:Total 24,590 women with RA were identified. The average incidence of RA during 2011-2016 among women in childbearing years was 24.1/100,000 person-years (PYs) (95% CI 20.91-27.31) with a yearly increase from 20.99/100,000 PYs in 2011 to 28.38/100,000 PYs in 2016. The average prevalence of RA during 2009-2016 among women in childbearing years was 105.2/100,000 PYs (95% CI 99.0-111.5) with a minimum of 95.7/100,000 PYs in 2009 and a maximum of 110.5/100,000 PYs in 2016. There were increasing trends in both incidence and prevalence of RA according to age among women in childbearing years peaking in the age group of 40-44 years. The prescriptions of NSAIDs, CSs, csDMARDs and bDMARDs were more frequent in women with RA than controls (NSAIDs; 94.21% vs 21.79%, CSs; 83.65% vs 4.28%, csDMARDs; 91.23% vs 0.41%, bDMARDs; 0.11% vs 0%, p<0.001).Conclusion:The incidence and prevalence of RA are high among Korean women in childbearing years, and medication use was significantly more frequent in this specific population than controls. High disease burden is imposed upon women in childbearing years.References:[1] Won S, Cho SK, Kim D, Han M, Lee J, Jang EJ, Sung YK, Bae SC: Update on the prevalence and incidence of rheumatoid arthritis in Korea and an analysis of medical care and drug utilization. Rheumatol Int 2018, 38(4):649-656.[2] Smeele HTW, Dolhain R: Current perspectives on fertility, pregnancy and childbirth in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism 2019, 49(3s):S32-s35.Table 1.Medication use among women with RA and controls in childbearing age between 20-44 years during 2009-2016Control(n=155,486)RA(n=23,756)n(%)n(%)PNSAIDs33,887(21.79)22,380(94.21)<.0001Steroids6,653(4.28)19,871(83.65)<.0001csDMARDs634(0.41)21,673(91.23)<.0001bDMARDs0(0.00)27(0.11)<.0001RA, rheumatoid arthritis; NSAID, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug; cs, conventional synthetic; b, biologic; DMARDs, disease modifying antirheumatic drugsDisclosure of Interests:None declared


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