Development of TNF-alpha Inhibitor Drugs in Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease that principally attacks synovial joints. Patients with RA suffer pain and physical disability. Therefore, scientists are developing many therapies to conquer this disease. Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a) is one of the key pro-inflammatory cytokine in attending and mediating the inflammatory process of RA. Thus, scientists are trying to develop the drugs targeting at TNF-a for the treatment of RA and have achieved satisfied results in theory and clinical practices. Biological inhibitors are in the lead to be approved to the market. However, the following researches reveal the side effects of this kind of drugs. On the other hand, the small molecular inhibitors are discovered and developed by the scientists, which show great prospects in the treatment of RA. In this review, we will have a brief introduction and outlooks of biological and small molecule TNF-a inhibitors.