[Prospects of the anti-cytokine therapy in rheumatoid arthritis]

The development and introduction of the anti-cytokine therapy applicable to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a most significant achievement in RA therapy. A high degree of purpose-orientation and selectivity of the mentioned method ensuring a high therapeutic effect and providing, simultaneously, for defining a number of important chains in RA pathogenesis is an essential advantage of the discussed approach. The clinical use of neutralization of key cytokines TNF-alpha, IL-1 and IF-gamma is a serious progress within this trend. Possibilities of developing new directions of the cytokines therapy are preconditioned, to a great extent, by the role of new, including little-studied cytokines, in the evolution of immune inflammation. A search for more simple low-molecular inhibitors of cytokines, which do not cause any tolerance-related problems, is another important trend. Hopefully, a further study of anti-cytokines and of their application in combination with other antirheumatic drugs will improve the general treatment results and outline new opportunities in antirheumatic therapy.