Treatment with DMARDs that target cytokine signaling is not associated with a reduced risk for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia in people with rheumatoid arthritis, US researchers report.

A comparison of different treatments for rheumatoid arthritis suggests that Janus kinase inhibitors are associated with the highest risk for herpes zoster, while some biologic DMARDs may also be linked to an increased risk.

Treatment with biologic DMARDs may increase the likelihood of remission almost fourfold in patients with axial spondyloarthritis relative to placebo, but more trials assessing remission-like outcomes are needed, say researchers.

Biologic and targeted synthetic DMARD use is associated with an elevated risk for herpes zoster in patients with rheumatoid arthritis compared with conventional synthetic DMARDs, according to research presented at the EULAR 2020 E-congress.

Tocilizumab is associated with a lower risk for major adverse cardiovascular events than tumor necrosis factor inhibitors among patients with rheumatoid arthritis, whereas the use of conventional DMARDs may be linked to an elevated risk, researchers report.

Tocilizumab is associated with a lower risk for major adverse cardiovascular events than tumor necrosis factor inhibitors among patients with rheumatoid arthritis, whereas the use of conventional DMARDs may be linked to an elevated risk, researchers report.

Using conventional synthetic DMARDs in addition to tumor necrosis factor inhibitor therapy may result in an increased likelihood of clinical response among overweight and obese patients with axial spondyloarthritis, researchers report.

Results of a systematic review and meta-analysis suggest that treatment with DMARDs does not offer clinically significant pain relief for patients with osteoarthritis.

Tocilizumab has a cardiovascular disease risk comparable with that of etanercept and other biologic DMARDs in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis, according to findings from a large, retrospective cohort study using real-world data.

Tocilizumab has a cardiovascular disease risk comparable with that of etanercept and other biologic DMARDs in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis, according to findings from a large, retrospective cohort study using real-world data.

The prescription of biologic DMARDs for spondyloarthritis patients varies significantly across countries, according to the findings of the ASAS-COMOSPA study.

medwireNews : The interleukin (IL)-6 inhibitor sirukumab could offer a therapeutic option for patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) despite treatment with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), results of the phase III SIRROUND-D study suggest.

Therefore, “[w]hen deciding on the initial treatment regimen for [late-onset] RA, it is likely not necessary to start combination DMARDs or a biologic/JAK inhibitor,” as many of these patients were able to reach remission on conventional DMARDs, write Bombardier et al.

They note that in the future, findings from the ongoing RA-BRANCH (NCT04086745) and RA-BRIDGE (NCT03915964) trials “will be available to provide a more complete understanding of the risk of VTE, MACE, and serious infection” in patients treated with baricitinib versus TNF inhibitors in high-risk patients with an inadequate response or intolerance to conventional or biologic DMARDs. medwireNews is an independent medical news service provided by Springer Healthcare Ltd. © 2022 Springer Healthcare Ltd, part of the Springer Nature Group Rheumatol Ther 2022; doi:10.1007/s40744-022-00505-1

Deane commented, however, that treatment of pre-RA “may not involve ‘established’ DMARDS,” but also include lifestyle changes and recognized the need to “shift our mindset from DMARDs, which we now think of in terms of drugs, to disease-modifying approaches.”

Men with rheumatoid arthritis initiating treatment with biologic or targeted synthetic DMARDs may be more likely to achieve remission than women, suggests research reported at The Lancet Summit: Sex and gender in rheumatology.

The presenter also reported that similar efficacy was seen regardless of prior exposure to DMARDs, which suggests that “peresolimab could be effective in more refractory patients.”

In addition, the proportion of patients who were prescribed a non-tumor necrosis factor inhibitor as their first treatment was numerically higher in group 1 (44.2%) than in groups 2, 3, and 4 (30.5%, 23.4%, and 18.6%, respectively), while the mean number of biologics or targeted DMARDs prescribed was lower in groups 1, 2, and 3 than in group 4 (1.1, 1.7, and 1.6 versus 2.3, respectively).

The team categorized the tocilizumab-treated participants into those who escalated or switched their DMARDs due to inflammatory activity (active RA) and those who remained on the same treatment with tocilizumab plus concomitant DMARDs during the study (non-active RA), and a total of 125 serum calprotectin measures were taken.