Editorial
Rituximab treatment in rheumatoid arthritis: how does it work?
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* Corresponding author: Paul P Tak P.P.Tak@amc.uva.nl
Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, Academic Medical Center/University of Amsterdam, 1100 DE Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Arthritis Research & Therapy 2009, 11:134 doi:10.1186/ar2852
Published: 24 November 2009Abstract
Treatment with the chimerical monoclonal antibody rituximab results in CD20-directed B cell depletion. Although this depletion is almost complete in the peripheral blood of nearly all patients with rheumatoid arthritis, a proportion of patients does not exhibit a clinical response. The paper by Nakou and colleagues suggests that a decrease in CD19+CD27+ memory B cells in both peripheral blood and bone marrow precedes the clinical response to rituximab. This finding adds to the emerging evidence that lack of response to rituximab is associated with persistence of B lineage cells in specific body compartments.