Disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs: strategies for screening

Rheumatoid arthritis, a disease of unknown aetiology, has a multifactorial pathogenesis which may result in irreversible connective tissue destruction and loss of joint function. The search for drugs which offer more than symptomatic relief is a long term, largely unachieved aim of many pharmaceutical companies. This review briefly outlines those features of the aetiopathogenesis which appear to offer targets for therapeutic intervention and the structured strategy and test systems that can be used to detect drugs which may be capable of halting disease progression.