Study Provides Clues to Relationship between Schizophrenia and Rheumatoid Arthritis

Pittsburgh: An in-depth computational analysis of genetic variants implicated in both schizophrenia and rheumatoid arthritis by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh points to eight genes that may explain why susceptibility to one of the disorders could place individuals at lower risk for the other, according to the results of a study published today in the journal npj Schizophrenia.  “There is a wealth of genomic data on both schizophrenia and rheumatoid arthritis. Analyzing it jointly with known protein interaction information could provide invaluable clues to the relationship between the diseases and also shed light on their shared roots,” said Madhavi Ganapathiraju Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical informatics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and senior author of the study.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Who Smoke or Are Overweight See Less Symptom Improvement with Treatment

New York: A study finds that smoking or being overweight  makes it more difficult for patients with rheumatoid arthritis to achieve optimal control of inflammation and symptoms, despite standard of care treatment. American and Canadian researchers, who collected data on more than 1,100 patients at multiple sites, presented their findings at the American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals annual meeting on November 15 in Washington, DC.

Mayo Clinic research sheds light on why some rheumatoid arthritis patients respond poorly to biologics

Mayo Clinic: A Mayo Clinic study is shedding light on why some rheumatoid arthritis patients respond poorly when treated with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors, part of a class of drugs call biologics. It comes down to proteins: specifically, a protein in the body that drives inflammation in the disease, the research found. The discovery is an important step toward better personalizing rheumatoid arthritis treatment, helping to avoid trial and error when prescribing medications. The findings were presented at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting in San Francisco.

Room to improve rheumatoid arthritis treatment

Scimex: Medical professionals are being urged to openly discuss methotrexate for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to allay patient concerns and myths about its toxicity, according to the authors of a Perspective published online today in the Medical Journal of Australia.
Such concerns are informed by a range of common myths and misconceptions about the diseasemodifying anti-rheumatic drug. Rheumatologists Associate Professor Mark Arnold (Associate Dean and Head of School, University of Sydney School of rural health) and Professors Inam Haq and Jane Bleasel, (Co-Directors, Sydney University Medical Program) debunked and clarified a range of these myths and misconceptions in the MJA article.

Early clinical trial success for new rheumatoid arthritis treatment

University of Queensland researchers have developed a world-first vaccine-style therapeutic approach to treat rheumatoid arthritis, a debilitating disease affecting more than 450,000 people in Australia. UQ Diamantina Institute researcher Professor Ranjeny Thomas said results from the phase one clinical trial, published in Science Translational Medicine today, demonstrate the new treatment is safe and effective in supressing the immune response.

Early signs of arthritis can be found in the mouth

Adelaide: A common gum disease may indicate a person’s risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis later in life, according to a University of Adelaide dental expert. Pr Mark Bartold, says multiple processes that occur in the body when someone develops periodontal (gum) disease serve as an indicator of possible development of rheumatoid arthritis later in life. “Periodontitis (the progressive loss of bone and tissue around teeth) is highly prevalent and is a major public health problem in both developed and developing countries, with up to 60% of adults suffering from the condition world-wide,” says Professor Bartold says.

Gene variants show potential in predicting rheumatoid arthritis disease outcomes

Manchester: Arthritis Research UK-funded scientists at The University of Manchester have identified a new way in which genotyping can be used to predict disease outcomes among sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis. New studies have shown that certain genetic variants are associated with higher or lower risks of increased disease severity.

The findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, (JAMA) could in future lead to those patients who are at risk of severe disease being identified early, and also predict who will respond best to treatment.

Hand exercises improve function in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Warwick: A new study is published today in The Lancet and shows a tailored hand exercise programme improves function and quality of life for patients living with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). RA affects more than 400,000 people in the UK, of whom about 80% have hand and wrist problems, and this has a substantial impact on quality of life, function and productivity. The new strengthening and stretching exercise programme developed for the study is a worthwhile, low cost intervention to adopt alongside medication.

Rheumatoid arthritis: is spa-therapy efficient?

Cochrane: We reviewed the evidence on the benefits and harms of balneotherapy (natural mineral waters, gases and mudpacks or spa therapy) in people with rheumatoid arthritis. Balneotherapy is defined as bathing in natural mineral or thermal waters (e.g. mineral baths, sulphur baths, Dead Sea baths), using mudpacks or doing both. The quality of the evidence is very low mainly because of the low number of participants in the studies and concerns about study designs.

Recent gut and urinary tract infections may curb risk of rheumatoid arthritis

BMJ: Recent gut and urinary tract infections may curb risk of rheumatoid arthritis. Explanation could lie in subsequent changes in gut bacteria, say researchers.

Rituximab for rheumatoid arthritis

Cochrane: We examined research published up to January 2014 on the effect of rituximab (Mabthera, Rituxan) for people with rheumatoid arthritis. From eight studies evaluating 2720 people with rheumatoid arthritis, we found that rituximab probably:
- improved pain, function and other symptoms;
- reduced disease activity;
- reduced joint damage as seen on the x-ray.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Authors: Dr Kenneth H. Fye University of California San Francisco 2008-07-28

Introduction

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic inflammatory disease defined by its (joint) manifestations. The arthritis of RA is an inflammatory, symmetrical, progressive, destructive process that attacks primarily the small proximal joints of the upper and lower extremities, although all joints in the body, except for those of the thoracic and lumbosacral spine, can be affected. The disease afflicts about 1.5% of the North American population, meaning that approximately 4.5 million Americans have RA. Women are affected three times as often as men. The disease usually begins during the childbearing years, but because it is a chronic, incurable disorder, the peak prevalence is seen in the seventh decade of life. Although RA is often considered to be simply a painful, debilitating arthritis, it is, in fact, a systemic disorder that has a significant impact on mortality.