New `armed antibody` may help cure arthritis

London: A new study has made a major breakthrough in treating arthritis by curing it in mice for the first time.

The researchers have developed a new biotechnologically produced active substance consisting of body's own immune messenger interleukin 4 and an antibody to it, and have successfully cured rheumatoid arthritis in mice and are now planning to test the efficacy of the drug in humans.

Till now, doctors have used various drugs to slow or stop the progression of the disease, but this research has developed a therapy that takes the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis to a new level.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a condition that causes painful inflammation of several joints in the body, but the drug, based on the key-lock principle, binds to a form of a protein that is found only in inflamed tissue in certain diseases, thereby treating it.

Based on the promising results from the animal model, they are currently preparing to test the new drug in clinical trials on people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis.