Disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs: Drugs that directly affect the underlying autoimmune processes in rheumatological disease, rather than act simply as analgesics or nonspecific antiinflammatories; they include gold compounds (e.g., aurothioglucose), antimalarials, penicillamine, and monoclonal antibodies against tumor necrosis factor-alpha and other immunochemicals [e]
Parent topics[edit]
- Rheumatology [r]: Medical specialty that deals with the study, diagnosis, and treatment of connective tissue diseases; a subspecialty of internal medicine [e]
- Autoimmune disease [r]: Disorders that are characterized by the production of antibodies that react with host tissues or immune effector cells that are autoreactive to endogenous peptides. [e]
Subtopics[edit]
- Antimalarial [r]: Rather than all drugs active against malaria, usually a reference to several synthetic analogues of quinine, with applications against malaria and other parasites, but also as disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARD) used as immunomodulators in rheumatology [e]
- Pyrimidine synthesis inhibitor [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Tumor necrosis factor-alpha blockers [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Interleukin-1 blockers [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Azathioprine [r]: An immunosuppressive purine synthesis inhibitor for treating rheumatoid arthritis; formerly a chemotherapy drug. [e]
- Methotrexate [r]: An inhibitor of tetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase, which prevents the formation of tetrahydrofolate, necessary for synthesis of thymidylate, an essential component of DNA; it has a wide range of medical applications. [e]
- Cyclosporin [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Minocycline [r]: An antibiotic tetracycline analog that can be used to treat tetracycline-resistant staphylococcus infections. [e]
- Sulfasalazine [r]: A sulfa drug, a derivative of Mesalazine, used primarily as an anti-inflammatory agent in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease as well as for rheumatoid arthritis. [e]
- Gold-based drugs [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Glucocorticoid [r]: Corticosteroids that affect carbohydrate metabolism, inhibit adrenocorticotropic hormone secretion, and are anti-inflammatory. [e]
- Anti-B cell (CD20) antibody [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Rituximab [r]: Chimeric monoclonal antibody against the protein CD20, which is primarily found on the surface of B cells, and used in the treatment of many lymphomas, and leukaemias. [e]
- Blockers of T cell activation [r]: Add brief definition or description
Diseases[edit]
Other related topics[edit]