Abstract
Oral tolerance is attracting attention as a form of immunological therapy for rheumatoid arthritis. It is discussed here in relation to (i) a recently completed clinical trial of type II collagen treatment in Berlin, and (ii) the general concept of paracrine activity of T-cell cytokines. Although the clinical resoonse has been marginal, no side-effects have been observed, and the data are compatible with a response in a sub-group of patients (∼ 10-20%). It is encouraging to find that those patients who did respond to the highest dosage (10 mg/day for 12 weeks) also showed a small but significant drop in their anti-collagen antibody titre. A possible explanation is that the responders had an appropriate level of gut permeability, perhaps associated with their response to NSAID treatment.
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Mitchison, A., Gimsa, U. & Sieper, J. Oral tolerance from a general perspective, and the possible role of side-effects in the gut. Inflammopharmacology 3, 389–392 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02668035
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02668035