title: [Anti-CD4 therapy in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis--have the die been cast?].
abstract: The hypothesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as a T cell mediated disease has led to the development of numerous therapeutic approaches that target the function of T cells. The development of monoclonal antibodies against the T cell surface molecule CD4 has raised hopes to achieve a major progress in the treatment of RA. However, after encouraging results in early open studies, double blind trials were unable to demonstrate the efficacy of anti-CD4-therapy in RA. There are numerous reasons to explain the failure of this treatment approach. Besides the fact that the T cell hypothesis of RA has repeatedly been challenged, pharmacological problems or an inappropriate selection of outcome criteria have to be considered. The final evaluation of anti-CD4 therapy in RA will be possible only after the testing of newly developed non-depleting anti-CD4 antibodies.
authors.affiliation: Universitätsklinikum Charité, Medizinische Fakultät der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Keysser
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Alpermann
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Burmester
mesh_terms: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D015704:CD4 Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D006801:Humans; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D015704:CD4 Antigens
vernacular_title: Anti-CD4-Therapie in der Behandlung der rheumatoiden Arthritis--sind die Würfel schon gefallen?