Mouse models for rheumatoid arthitis

Autoimmunity is one of the most common causes of morbidity in the world and is a feature of many different diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA affects about 1% of the world's population and is gender-biased towards the female. RA is a chronic and systemic inflammatory disorder associated with harmful proliferation of white blood cells (lymphocytes) that attack and destroy flexible joints. Early detection and aggressive therapy is crucial to successfully treat RA. At an early stage RA patients normally receive the anti-cancer drug methotrexate (MTX). RA medication is life-lasting. This together with the fact that some RA patients do not respond to MTX may explain the severe side effects and the low life quality associated with RA-medication. A method to diagnose MTX none-responders and to develop more specific drugs to treat RA patients is greatly needed. Proliferating lymphocytes require large amounts of energy which comes from the carbohydrate glucose and the amino acid glutamine. We aim at producing novel drugs that effectively inhibit glucose and glutamine consumption of proliferating white blood cells in RA patients in order to develop new and personalized treatment of RA patients with few or no side effects. We will in the setup here test including MTX novel drugs developed by us (C19) and various anti-cancer drugs as cancer cell proliferation resembles immune cell proliferation. We expect to identify novel drugs targeting autoimmune immune ells in RA and autoimmunity in general.