Study published in PLoSOne by Joana Duarte, Luís Graça and colleagues awarded
The Department for the study of Auto-immune Diseases (NEDAI) of the Portuguese Society of Internal Medicine distinguished with the NEDAI/MSD Award in Autoimmunity Research a study in Rheumatoid Arthritis conducted by the IMM researchers Joana Duarte, Luís Graça and colleagues.
The winning study, published in PLoSOne, describes an effective treatment for the prevention of chronic rheumatoid arthritis in mice. The authors showed that treatment of mice with a specific antibody used in the study (an anti-CD4) not only prevents the onset of rheumatoid arthritis in healthy mice, but also prevents disease progression in mice who have already developed symptoms of the disease. The results are relevant because the protective effect is long term and because the animal model used has similarities to human rheumatoid arthritis.
