Rheumatoid Arthritis Breakthrough

piggy submitted, created time 1 week 21 hours (www.sciencedaily.com)

Rheumatoid arthritis is a painful, inflammatory type of arthritis that occurs when the body's immune system attacks itself. A new article reports a breakthrough in the understanding of how autoimmune responses can be controlled, offering a promising new strategy for therapy development for rheumatoid arthritis.

Normally, immune cells develop to recognise foreign material – antigens; including bacteria - so that they can activate a response against them. Immune cells that would respond to 'self' and therefore attack the body's own cells are usually destroyed during development

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New MRI Scan Detects Early Arthritis

kavin submitted, created time 2 months 3 weeks (www.webmd.com)

A new MRI test promises to detect osteoarthritis early, when treatments are most helpful.

The technique also detects spinal disc degeneration, report NYU researchers Alexej Jerschow, PhD, and Ravinder R. Regatte, PhD, at the 236th annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, held Aug. 17-21 in Philadelphia.

"Our methods have the potential of providing early warning signs for cartilage disorders like osteoarthritis, thus potentially avoiding surgery and physical therapy later on," Jerschow says in a news release

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Cancer Immunology Review

Good news: Study Finds Gene Therapy Did Not Kill Patient!

Eric wu submitted, created time 11 months 3 weeks (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

Federal regulators have given a green light to a gene-therapy arthritis trial that was halted last summer after a patient died. New tests indicate that the therapy played no role in the death. The decision comes as a relief to gene-therapy researchers who had worried about a potential new setback for their field.

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Gene therapy trial to restart

Genetic interaction with smoking in arthritis

jerry submitted, created time 6 months 1 week (arthritis-research.com)

Analysis of data from a study of American nurses confirms the PTPN22 polymorphism is a strong risk factor for rheumatoid arthritis, and that its presence interacts multiplicatively with heavy smoking.

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Clearing the Air over Asbestos