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posted by janrinok on Friday October 21 2016, @11:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the see-what-they-did-there? dept.

A well-known rheumatoid arthritis medication containing the active agent adalimumab, a therapeutic human monoclonal antibody, is also effective for treating non-infectious uveitis, a rare eye disease. This has now been discovered by an international research group, in which MedUni Vienna was also involved with significant participation by Talin Barisani-Asenbauer of the Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology & Immunology and the Laura Bassi Center at MedUni Vienna. The results of the VISUAL-I study have now been published in the leading journal New England Journal of Medicine.

"We were able to prospectively demonstrate for the very first time that non-infectious uveitis can also be successfully treated with a cortisol-free medication. That will significantly improve the management of uveitis patients who have only partially responded to corticosteroids, need a corticosteroid sparing therapy or who are unsuitable for treatment with corticosteroids," explains Barisani-Asenbauer. The biologic medication adalimumab has long been used to treat rheumatic diseases and has to be injected subcutaneously every two weeks. For sufferers, steroid-free means there are fewer side-effects, so that it can be used over a longer period of time.


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  • (Score: 1) by Scottingham on Friday October 21 2016, @01:27PM

    by Scottingham (5593) on Friday October 21 2016, @01:27PM (#417223)

    I JUST came from the eye doc this morning. I'm actually 2 months into taking adalimumab, and am now in the middle of a flare up of uveitis. I just took my injectio, on Tuesday. The flare up started early last week. The inflammation is actually worse than it was last week! What gives? So now I'm on steroids AND this shiz.

    I had high hopes for the adalimumab that it would stop me from getting flare ups, or if i did get them they'd be a minor compared to previous episodes. So far, it seems to have not made a difference at all.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2016, @09:41PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2016, @09:41PM (#417434)

      Check you dosage to see if it matches the study:

      [Patients received] adalimumab (a loading dose of 80 mg followed by a dose of 40 mg every 2 weeks)

      It's also possible that your immune system is rejecting the adalimumab (anti-idiotypic) or TNF is not a major factor in your eye inflammation.

      http://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa1509852 [nejm.org]
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiotopes [wikipedia.org]

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2016, @01:33PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2016, @01:33PM (#417227)

    I think you mean the brand name HUMIRA.

    Works good for arthritus. Screws with your immune system. So after a while you start getting every little sniffle and cough that goes around. Can't shake it off. Just treat the symptoms. Or get antibiotics, longer course than would be usual, and it goes away, for a good while. Or you can stop taking HUMIRA for a while and gradually start being in too much pain again. Of course there are addictive opioid drugs, and I've got five different kinds, but one doesn't want to develop a tolerance, let alone an addiction. If you want opioids to work great, then don't use them very often. So then you start the cycle again by taking HUMIRA. It doesn't work instantly. But in a couple days you're not in pain any more, or much less and feeling great.

    So it's a balance of being sick all the time or being in pain all the time.

    The other thing is HUMIRA, at least a few years ago, was about $800 per dose. So a box of two doses is about $1600, or about $5 after insurance. Yes, really.

    Who knew it had other uses. But when I started, it had just been approved for my particular flavor of arthritis.

    • (Score: 1) by purple_cobra on Friday October 21 2016, @08:48PM

      by purple_cobra (1435) on Friday October 21 2016, @08:48PM (#417415)
      It's also used to treat (and don't look at this link if you're squeamish) Crohn's disease [wikipedia.org], a particularly unpleasant gastrointestinal condition and yes, the side effects are unpleasant; it's always a trade-off balancing possible side-effects from medication/surgery versus patient's quality of life (or being able to continue living, in some cases). A friend's brother ended up needing surgery to keep him alive and it was touch and go for a while even then.