RESEARCH - Local gene therapy seen as promising for RA

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Local Gene Therapy Seen Promising for Rheumatoid Arthritis

By Karla Gale

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Feb 03 - Based on preliminary results in two

patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis, intraarticular delivery of

a gene encoding a cytokine blocker substantially reduces joint pain,

at least in the short term, investigators in Germany and the US

report.

" These data provide the first documented, clinical evidence that local

gene therapy can provide symptomatic relief in human RA, " Dr.

H. and co-investigators write in the February issue

of Human Gene Therapy.

" Our main motive was to solve the problem of how to deliver an

anti-arthritic protein in a sustained fashion to an arthritic joint, "

Dr. told Reuters Health. " Secondary advantages should be fewer

side effects, lower costs and improved efficacy. "

Dr. , at Harvard Medical School in Boston, and his team

previously found that local gene therapy is effective in animal models

of the disease, and results of a phase I trial confirmed that genes

could be safely transferred and expressed intraarticularly in humans.

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