rheumatoid arthritis tagged posts

Simvastatin acts as a stopper, plugging the adhesion molecules in the immune system.

Simvastatin, which is one of the most commonly used pharmaceuticals in the world, also has a beneficial effect on the immune defense system with regard to diseases such as type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Danish researchers have now explored why this is so, and their findings may result in improved treatment.

In the case of multiple sclerosis, the immune defense system destroys the central nervous system, while the inflammation affects the kidneys, eyes and sense of touch in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, leading to a variety of complications...

Testing for antibodies that target citrullinated tenascin-C (cTNC) could diagnose RA in around 50% of cases, including some cases not identified by current best tests. It also has a very low rate of false positives – 98% accurate at ruling out RA.

When inflammation occurs in the body, some proteins are altered in a process called citrullination. These altered forms can cause an autoimmune attack and RA. For that reason, tests that spot antibodies to citrullinated proteins are already used to diagnose the disease. While tests for individual proteins usually have a relatively low diagnostic sensitivity, a more general test called CCP, that detects synthetic citrullinated peptides, identifies a lot more RA cases.

Dr Anja Schwenzer said: ‘We knew that tenascin-C is found at high levels in the...