Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) refers to a disease that attacks an individual’s eyes, joints, lungs, skin, and other organs. Generally, it is diagnosed due to the damage noticed in joints. However, it is a much severe autoimmune disease that causes a lot of pain and suffering for the patients. Another downside related to the condition is that treatment options are limited and not very practical for now.
Recently, a team has emphasized in their study that the gut might be an essential factor to investigate when it comes to development of arthritis. The new study investigated the changes that occur in the gut due to the onset of RA. The findings proposed might be highly relevant for the Rheumatoid Arthritis Market; it might lead to the development of proper and effective treatment, thus, relieving patients from the prospect of constant pain.
The study builds on the knowledge that bacteria in the gut might play a critical role in developing the disease. There are additional factors to consider, like environment and genes, which affect the RA’s advancement significantly. Nonetheless, the team states that the mechanism might damage the gut lining itself. Further, some prior publications have indicated a similar idea of a real connection between the gut’s immune functions and arthritis. The studies influenced the researchers of the present study to inspect the happenings of the gut that could lead to answers needed to fight RA.
The findings from the pre-clinical study state that even in the early stages of RA, blood markers of gut damage were raised in patients suffering from the disease. In addition, the increase in these blood markers corresponded to the onset of RA. Researchers discovered that once the gut lining is damaged, the bacteria get easy entry into the body, resulting in enhanced inflammation which negatively affects the joints. A more unexpected conclusion was that people with RA also showed distinct signs of inflammation commonly seen in inflammatory bowel disease.
The team feels that intestinal lining needs to be a therapeutic target. Furthermore, treatment needs to include drugs that restore the gut-barrier integrity to prevent the gut from becoming leaky or let inflammatory cells pass through it. This might help in reducing the severity of arthritis as per pre-clinical models.
RA is, unfortunately, an incurable disease. Although treatments are available, none of them till now have addressed the problem in the gut. The team is looking forward to moving towards clinical studies to further the new treatment opportunities. They hope to develop a method that will address the inflammation in the gut while including other factors.