Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by inflammation of joints leading to joint destruction. As thus far no curative therapy is available, the therapeutic possibilities range from conventional disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) to the more recent biological agents (e.g. anti-TNFa) and also include very often glucocorticoids (GC).
The central theme is:
Modulation of inflammation and joint damage, with a focus on the interaction between T cells and macrophages.
Rheumatoid arthritis affects more than 1% of the adult population in the western world. The chronic joint inflammation and damage often results in loss of function, reduced quality of life and disability. Due to the serious social and economic consequences of the disease, the efforts put into development of novel strategies or improvement of treatment adds to restrain the social economic impact of this disease and will be of major relevance to our society.
The research lines within this theme are: