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Published on: January 31, 2020
Can we induce tolerance in rheumatoid arthritis?
1Department of Medicine, Division of Connective Tissue Diseases, University of Tennessee Memphis, and Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 956 Court Ave, Room G 326, Memphis, TN 38163, USA. apostlethwai@utmem.edu
Oral tolerance (OT) has worked well in numerous laboratory animal models of autoimmune diseases. Humans have been orally tolerized to keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH); patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc, scleroderma) have been orally tolerized to oral type I collagen (CI). However, clinical trials of oral type II collagen (CII) therapy in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have had mixed results. Clinical studies show that compounds (such as nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs and prednisone) that inhibit generation of PGE(2) block OT induction. In murine OT models, the PGE(1) analog, misoprostol, reverses the NSAID OT block. These animal studies suggest that OT to CII or other antigens in patients with RA should be inducible if measures are taken to maintain normal prostaglandin function in the gut- associated lymphoid tissue (GALT). A clinical trial is underway in patients with RA to assess whether withholding NSAIDs and prednisone will allow OT to to be induced, and whether oral CII has meaningful clinical efficacy in this disease.
Oral tolerance (OT) has worked well in numerous laboratory animal models of autoimmune diseases. Humans have been orally tolerized to keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH); patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc, scleroderma) have been orally tolerized to oral type I collagen (CI). However, clinical trials of oral type II collagen (CII) therapy in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have had mixed results. Clinical studies show that compounds (such as nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs and prednisone) that inhibit generation of PGE(2) block OT induction. In murine OT models, the PGE(1) analog, misoprostol, reverses the NSAID OT block. These animal studies suggest that OT to CII or other antigens in patients with RA should be inducible if measures are taken to maintain normal prostaglandin function in the gut- associated lymphoid tissue (GALT). A clinical trial is underway in patients with RA to assess whether withholding NSAIDs and prednisone will allow OT to to be induced, and whether oral CII has meaningful clinical efficacy in this disease.
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