New focus on treatment for rheumatoid arthritis

Although the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis increasingly continues to be well understood, therapeutic approaches to the disease remain relatively unsophisticated and based more on anecdote than scientific reasoning. During the past year, additional supportive data regarding the usefulness of front-line agents such as methotrexate and hydroxychloroquine were acquired, and novel potential interventions, such as pulse gammaglobulin and OM-8980 were identified. Animal model studies still support the prospect that genuine remission-inducing strategies will be realized in the future.