Smoking bad for arthritis patients NDTV.com, India - To examine if or not smoking deteriorates the condition of those suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, researchers from America identified 300 adult ...
Wound Botulism Cases Confirmed in LA County L.A. Watts Times (subscription), CA - Nov 26, 2008 (HealthDay News) ? Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic autoimmune disease that affects the joints. Remedies may include lifestyle changes, medication and ...
Building Immunity Naturally, Part 2 Brattleboro Reformer, United States - Nov 21, 2008 In the last couple years a whole group of drugs has come in to play to treat Rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, autoimmune diseases, etc. ...
Healthy Monday: Diseases run in the family Gainesville Times, GA - Nov 23, 2008 Autoimmune disorders such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis fall into this category. If someone carries the gene, they can develop the ...
Pfizer's Ills And Cures In 2008 Trading Markets (press release), CA - Nov 22, 2008 Celebrex was approved by the FDA in December 1998 for relief of joint pain of osteoarthritis and adult rheumatoid arthritis. The first Celebrex lawsuit was ...
More teenage girls at risk of getting osteoporosis The Gazette (Montreal), Canada - Nov 11, 2008 ... low body weight, smoking and rheumatoid arthritis, one of the biggest issues confronting experts is misinformation, says Dr. Carolyn DeMarco, ...
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Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: rheumatoid arthritis + smoking + arthritis Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/7/2008)
Arthritis: sorting fact from fiction The Canberra Times, Australia - Jul 26, 2008 She says children as young as three months can be afflicted with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis a severe and debilitating form of the disease. ...
Genetics, lifestyle affect bone density Daytona Beach News-Journal, FL - Aug 3, 2008 Even though you can't change your race, your genes, or the fact that you have rheumatoid arthritis, there are risk factors that you can avoid and treatment ...
Charities' dismay at arthritis drugs ruling InTheNews.co.uk, UK - Jul 21, 2008 The National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) added that the Nice decision will deny approximately 60000 people with RA access to a range of Anti-TNF ...
? OBOL - Dandelions and Bell Peppers WEYI NBC25, MI - Jul 24, 2008 While one study suggests that high doses of supplemental vitamin C makes osteoarthritis, a type of degenerative arthritis that occurs with aging, ...
If the drugs don?t work... WalesOnline, United Kingdom - Jul 11, 2008 I had had rheumatoid arthritis for seven years, ?I prayed to God that if it was his will for me to be ordained, he would have to heal me, for his sake, ...
Osteoporosis?Not Just a Women?s Concern Medfinds, WA - Aug 1, 2008 Although some studies identified rheumatoid arthritis, respiratory diseases such as asthma, and gastrointestinal disorders such as celiac disease as risk ...
Generic Heartburn at Wyeth Motley Fool - Jul 25, 2008 Sales of rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel was up 6% in the US and Canada where it shares marketing duties with Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN), but was up 36% in the ...WYE
Tech.view It?s in your genes?maybe Economist, UK - Jul 18, 2008 We now know the SNPs for cancer of the breast, prostate and lung as well as for obesity, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer?s, multiple sclerosis, ...
Statin drugs-benefits vs risks Casa Grande Valley Newspapers, AZ - Jul 30, 2008 A controlled study found atorvastatin superior to placebo for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. With a growing list of potential benefits, ...
Case Points to Link Between Crohn's Treatment, Cancer Washington Post, United States - Jul 16, 2008 The rare case has broader implications and sheds light on the possible effect of anti-TNF medications -- which are also used to treat rheumatoid arthritis...
Smoking and risk of rheumatoid arthritis. - M Heliovaara, K Aho, A Aromaa, P Knekt, A Reunanen - J Rheumatol, 1911 - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov J Rheumatol. 1993 Nov;20(11):1830-5. Comment in: J Rheumatol. 1993
Nov;20(11):1815-6. Smoking and risk of rheumatoidarthritis. ...
The impact of smoking and genes on rheumatoid arthritis
Smoking is the major known environmental risk factor for rheumatoid arthritis, though little is known about the mechanisms involved. HLA-DR shared epitope ( SE ) genes are a widely recognized genetic risk factor for rheumatoid arthritis, though little is known about how these genes affect autoimmune reactions that lead to chronic inflammation and progressive joint and organ damage.
To better understand the interactions between smoking and HLA-DR SE genes in rheumatoid arthritis, researchers in Sweden focused on the disease's distinctive autoimmune hallmark: citrulline, an amino acid not normally present in protein.
While extremely rare in healthy individuals and relatively rare in other inflammatory conditions, citrulline-modified proteins are common in about two-thirds of rheumatoid arthritis patients and may be an underlying factor in the development of the disease.
To investigate whether smoking and SE genes trigger immune reactions to citrullinated proteins, researchers conducted a case-control study involving patients with recent-onset rheumatoid arthritis.
The study's 930 early rheumatoid arthritis patients, drawn from the Epidemiological Investigation of Rheumatoid Arthritis Study Group, ranged in age from 18 to 70 years. 383 healthy controls, drawn from the blood bank of northern Sweden, were matched for age, gender, and residential area.
All participants completed questionnaires about their past and present smoking habits, as well as genotyping profiles. In addition, bronchial fluid was obtained from a representative sample of rheumatoid arthritis patients, including both current heavy smokers and lifelong non-smokers, and tested with immunostaining for the presence of citrullinated protein in cells.
Based on their series of experiments and comparisons, the researchers found that a history of smoking increases the risk for rheumatoid arthritis, but only for individuals who test positive for anticitrulline antibodies, regardless of the presence of SE genes.
Similarly, inheriting HLA-DR SE genes in a single copy, as well as in double copies, increases the risk for rheumatoid arthritis, but only for individuals who test positive for anticitrulline antibodies, including individuals who have never smoked. Yet, for individuals who test positive for anticitrulline antibodies, the interaction of smoking and carrying 2 copies of the SE gene dramatically increases the risk for developing rheumatoid arthritis by 21 times.
" The remarkable gene-environment interaction observed in the case-control study, together with the immunostaining for citrullinated proteins, might now provide a clue to the molecular mechanisms of importance for disease development in a subset of rheumatoid arthritis patients," notes Lars Klareskog of Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm. " We may thereby be given some new opportunities to both predict and understand the onset of RA and to interfere with rheumatoid arthritis-inducing events before clinical symptoms are apparent."
