Advances in Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment
For years, traditional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), like methotrexate, were the standard for aggressively treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Then in the 1990s, researchers learned more about the role of the immune system in RA, and a new type of DMARD (called a biologic DMARD) was born. Many of these biologics, as they are often called, target a particular part of the immune system known as tumor necrosis factor (TNF). TNF is a chemical messenger that is believed to play a role in the inflammation of RA. And the biologics that target TNF are called anti-TNFs (or TNF inhibitors).
Targeting B-cells to Treat Your Rheumatoid Arthritis
More recent advances in RA research have shed light on the importance of specific B-cells—a type of white blood cell found in the immune system. According to this research, specific B-cells are believed to play a key role in the pain, symptoms, and joint damage of RA. And now, many rheumatolgists are prescribing B-cell targeted therapy, a different type of biologic, when other treatments like anti-TNFs have not worked well.
