Tocilizumab in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and beyond.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic inflammatory disease characterized by joint pain, swelling, stiffness, and progressive destruction of the small joints of the hands and feet. Treatment of RA has improved over the past decade. With multiple cytokines well-known now to play a role in the pathogenesis of RA, including tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IL-6, many targeted biological treatments against these cytokines have emerged, changing the treatment of this disease.

Pharmacologic treatments for pulmonary hypertension: exploring pharmacogenomics.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a disease with multiple etiologies and is categorized into five broad groups. Of these groups, pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is the most studied and, therefore, all of the currently available drug classes (prostacyclin analogs, endothelin receptor antagonists and phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors) were developed to treat PAH. Thus, limited treatment data exist for the less-studied non-PAH forms of PH.

Improvement in safety monitoring of biologic response modifiers after the implementation of clinical care guidelines by a specialty.

Background: Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha inhibitors and other biologic response modifiers (BRMs) are frequently used to treat a variety of inflammatory diseases. Use of these agents may increase risk of serious infections, malignancies, and other complications such as worsening symptoms of heart failure or demyelinating disease. Because of these risks, a baseline assessment and routine monitoring have been recommended, but standardized guidelines for monitoring have yet to be established.