Anti-TNF study sheds new light on how they function

In this study, the researchers observed that treating rheumatoid arthritis patients with adalimumab helped to increase the number of regulatory T cells that suppressed inflammation in the body. It was previously assumed that this was because TNF stops the development of these anti-inflammatory cells.However, the new study revealed that in actual fact, TNF actually triggers the formation of anti-inflammatory T cells, and that adalimumab is capable of enhancing this process at the same time as stopping TNF's pro-inflammatory effects.Michael Ehrenstein and colleagues at University College London said: "These results highlight how a treatment that targets a pivotal inflammatory cytokine not only preserves but actually boosts the pro-resolution forces driven by that pathway, thereby introducing a novel therapeutic paradigm."Explaining the difference between anti-TNF therapies This discovery also helps to explain the differences in functional performance seen between different anti-TNFs. Scientists did not previously understand why another anti-TNF, etanercept, does not trigger the development of inflammation-suppressing T cells in the same way as adalimumab.The team realised that this is because not all anti-TNFs work in the same way as adalimumab, and that etanercept is not able to enhance the positive effects of TNFs at the same time as suppressing the negative ones.This knowledge could help to facilitate the selection of effective treatments for arthritis patients...
Source: Arthritis Research UK - Category: Rheumatology Source Type: news