Technology and Products

Arthritis

Arthritis (from the Greek word for joint) is a chronic multifactorial disease induced when the immune system attacks and begins degrading the body's joints. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by chronic inflammation of the synovium, and comes in many forms, including calcific periarthritis, enteropathic arthritis, chronic, gouty, and hand osteoarthritis, hip and knee osteoarthritis, thumb, Jaccoud’s, juvenile osteoarthritis, oligoarthritis, polyarthritis, and peripheral, psoriatic, rheumatoid, and septic arthritis. RA is triggered by an immune response generated via the molecular recognition of the T-cell receptor on CD4-positive T cells with a complex of disease-inducing peptides bound to Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) class II molecules.

Rheumatoid arthritis alone is estimated to affect 1% of the world’s population and is twice as prevalent in women as in men. The aging population of developed countries are presents a growing market for arthritis therapies. In the US, arthritis and other rheumatic conditions affects about 15% of the population.

There is no cure for arthritis or RA at present. Current therapies are aimed at alleviating the symptoms of the disease and arresting its progress using drugs such as Enbrel®. Chemotherapeutic agents such as methotrexate, cyclophosphamide and cyclosporine have been also used for alleviating symptoms. All of the above treatments have side-effect liabilities, limited effects on relapse rates and on ability to prevent exacerbation of the disease. Thus, there is a need for new drugs which can be used alone or in combination with other drugs to combat the progression and symptoms of arthritis, in particular, RA. It has now been found that certain novel phenazine compounds facilitate recovery in subjects suffering from autoimmune diseases. Thus, the novel phenazine compounds are useful in the treatment and prevention of arthritis, RA, and other autoimmune diseases.