Researchers say arthritis vaccine shows promise
February 6, 1996
Web posted at: 12:10 a.m. ESTFrom Medical Correspondent Jeff Levine
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Scientists have developed an experimental vaccine that seems to quell symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis with few side effects. The promising new treatment would be a boon to many sufferers of the painful disease.
Once a serious runner, Susan McGarry was slowed by the effects of rheumatoid arthritis.
"Sometimes just a stiffness, to a severe pain, almost a throbbing," she says.
(109K AIFF sound or 109K WAV sound)Then, two years ago, the vaccine put her back on the fast track.
"It's been great," she says. "It's amazing. It's worked longer than any medication I've ever been on."
Rheumatoid arthritis affects about three million Americans, mostly women. For reasons that aren't clear, the body's immune system perceives the joints as an enemy and attacks them.
Previously, treatments were often dangerous and came with severe side effects, says Dr. J. Bruce Smith of Thomas Jefferson University. But the new vaccine apparently changes that.
"It's a relatively inexpensive way to treat somebody," Smith says.
Smith is a partner in a new biotech firm developing the product.
Researchers at Thomas Jefferson have come up with novel approach to the disease. Normally, a vaccine helps build immunity. But with rheumatoid arthritis, the idea is to turn the immune system down.
Smith's model for the process was an observation that rheumatoid arthritis patients like McGarry don't have symptoms while they're pregnant. That's probably because the mother secretes anti-inflammatory substances called cytokines to protect the fetus.
Doctors have borrowed a technique used to prevent miscarriage. They inject the patient with another person's purified white blood cells to generate cytokines.
The technique has been used in 11 women with rheumatoid arthritis. Smith says that he is very enthusiastic about the results.
"We have a 70 percent response rate in our preliminary trial," he says.
But the researchers say a bigger test is needed, and the Arthritis Foundation agrees.
"Frankly, this study from Jefferson Medical School is just too small to give us any real indication," says the Foundation's Dr. Doyt Conn.
But McGarry says she felt a difference in about four months on the new treatment.
"Since after my third immunization, I've had such incredible relief from pain," she says.
Researchers point out that the vaccine isn't a cure, but that it may turn off a reaction that could cause a lifetime of pain.
Related sites:
- Arthrits FAQ
- Thurston Arthrits Resarch Center
- Arthrits Foundation
- Arthritis Today Magazine
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
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