Disease-modifying antirheumatic drug
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Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) is a category of drugs used in many autoimmune disorders to slow down disease progression. Their use was first propagated in rheumatoid arthritis (hence their name) but has come to include many other diseases, such as Crohn's disease, lupus erythematosus (SLE), idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), myasthenia gravis and various others.
Some of these drugs are also used in the treatment of ulcerative colitis which may not, strictly speaking, be an autoimmune disorder. (See List of Autoimmune Diseases.) The Radical Induction Theory of Ulcerative Colitis suggests that sulfasalazine may be serving as a free radical trap as well as an anti-inflammatory in the treatment of that disease.
Some DMARDs are mild chemotherapeutics but use a side-effect of chemotherapy - immunosuppression - as its main therapeutical benefit.
[edit] Members
- adalimumab
- azathioprine
- chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine (antimalarials)
- ciclosporin (Cyclosporine A)
- D-penicillamine
- etanercept
- gold salts (sodium aurothiomalate, auranofin)
- infliximab
- leflunomide
- methotrexate (MTX)
- minocycline (a tetracycline antibiotic)
- sulfasalazine (SSZ)
[edit] Alternatives
When treatment with DMARDs fails, cyclophosphamide or steroid pulse therapy is often used to stabilise uncontrolled autoimmune disease. Some severe autoimmune diseases are being treated with bone marrow transplants in clinical trials, usually after cyclophosphamide therapy has failed.
