Medical News
Existing treatment drug could also prevent rheumatoid arthritis
Early treatment may lead to remarkable improvements against the incurable condition
Amedication already in use to treat rheumatoid arthritis ( RA ) may help prevent the condition in people who are at risk of developing it , a potentially significant breakthrough for a debilitating chronic condition that has no cure .
RA is an autoimmune disease where the immune system mistakenly attacks the body , typically causing inflammation in the joints and painful swelling . Though treatment can help manage symptoms , some people can experience painful flares that make it hard to go about daily business .
A team of researchers led by King ’ s College London enrolled 213 patients deemed at risk of RA due to their blood profile and joint pain and randomly treated some of them with weekly abatacept injections while giving the remaining participants a placebo or dummy drug . The new trial was conducted in the UK and the Netherlands and showed that 92.8 percent of those who received the drug were arthritis-free after 12 months , while the same occurred in only 69.2 percent of the individuals who got a placebo . At 24 months , 25 percent of people in the abatacept group progressed to �A , but the same progression took place in 37 percent of those who weren ’ t treated with the drug . However , after two years , symptoms like pain and inflammation were similar between the two groups , suggesting that the effect of the 12-month treatment is not sustained and people may require it for longer periods .
�This is the largest rheumatoid arthritis prevention trial to date and the first to show that a therapy licensed for use in treating established rheumatoid arthritis is also effective in preventing the onset of disease in people at risk ,” Professor of Rheumatology , Dr Andrew Cope , from the School of Immunology � Microbial Sciences at King ’ s College said in a press release . �These initial results could be good news for people at risk of arthritis as we show that the drug not only prevents disease onset during the treatment phase but can also ease symptoms such as pain and fatigue .”
The trial was particularly effective for Philip Day , a 35-year-old software engineer whose pain affected his daily life to the point where he had to give up playing football , with unpredictable bouts of pain in the knee , elbows , neck , or wrist .
�Enrolling in the trial was a no-brainer� it was a ray of hope at a dark time . Within a few months I had no more aches or pains and five years on I ’ d say I ’ ve been cured . Now I can play football with my three-year-old son and have a normal life ,” he said in the press release .
People treated with abatacept for one year may , however , experience several side effects , including upper respiratory tract infection , dizziness , nausea , and diarrhoea , but these are usually mild . The yearly cost of treatment is �10,000 ( about US�12,700 ) in the UK .
�esearchers now aim to better identify who ’ s a good candidate for the preventive treatment . “ Our next steps are to understand people at risk in more detail so that we can be absolutely sure that those at highest risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis receive the drug .”
38 ISSUE 1 | 2024 GlobalHealthAsiaPacific . com