[Monoclonal antibodies as an immunotherapy of rheumatoid arthritis]

Rheumatoid arthritis(RA) is a chronic, deforming and destructive arthritis of unknown etiology. For the medical treatment of RA, NSAID has been the first choice of drug. Recently it has been known that early use of DMARD may result in clinical remission. Understanding of the pivotal role of cytokines and adhesion molecules for the rheumatoid joint destruction enabled us to target these cytokines and molecules as therapeutic measures. Monoclonal antibodies were produced against the cytokines and adhesion molecules such as IL-1, IL-6, IL-6R, TNF-alpha, as well as CD4 molecules. Clinical use of these monoclonal antibodies was found to be effective for rheumatoid arthritis. However these therapeutic measures have several disadvantages such as transient efficacy and side effect.