Washington: American scientists have zeroed in on a new strategy that holds promise for improved treatment of arthritis and other auto-immune disorders in people.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists have demonstrated a new strategy for treating auto-immune disease that successfully blocked the development of rheumatoid arthritis in a mouse model.
The scientists report in the Journal of Clinical Investigation that infusing a highly specific type of cell that regulates immune responses into arthritis-prone mice shuts down the cascade of inflammation that damages tissues and joints.
The method worked best when the infusions of CD8+ Treg cells were given at the same time that the animals were injected with a protein that triggered the arthritis-causing auto-immune reaction, reported Science Daily.
"We found we could almost completely inhibit the disease in this setting," said Harvey Cantor, MD, chair of the Department of Cancer Immunology an d AIDS at Dana-Farber and the study`s senior author.
Even when administered weeks after the disease was initiated, CD8+ Treg infusions combined with low doses of methotrexate -- a commonly used dr ug for rheumatoid arthritis -- were able to significantly slow the arthritis process, the scientists reported.
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