title: Prospects of immunotherapy for rheumatoid arthritis.
abstract: The main challenge in the development of new modalities for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis is to enhance the specificity while reducing the adverse side-effects of therapeutics. Biotechnology provides a variety of reagents, such as monoclonal antibodies, recombinant cytokines, cytokine antagonists, and small peptides, with the potential to interfere with selected stages of the disease process in a highly specific manner. In addition, several new therapeutic approaches have emerged as a result of extensive research with animal models of disease, including T-cell vaccination and bone marrow transplantation. This article discusses current insights into the pathogenesis of rheumatic diseases, focusing on rheumatoid arthritis. A number of new therapeutic modalities for rheumatoid arthritis, in particular those acting on the immune system, are discussed. Because it is not possible to provide a complete overview of all the developments in the field in limited space, a selection of strategies and modalities which are representative of the broad variety of immunotherapeutic approaches currently used are highlighted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunobiology, Biomedical Primate Research Centre, Rijswijk, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: t Hart
authors.forename: H G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Otten
mesh_terms: D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy