• Project Leader: Professor John Isaacs
• Staff: Dr Arthur Pratt
• Sponsors: Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Partners: Medical Research Council

Project Leader: Professor John Isaacs

Staff: Dr Arthur Pratt

We plan to test a drug in RA patients that we think will affect the behaviour of fibroblasts. The drug interferes with the machinery necessary for cells to divide. The drug has already been tested in patients with certain types of cancer (in which cells also divide inappropriately). We aim to show that the treatment is safe and that it could provide a useful treatment for RA patients.

The research is divided into two parts. In the first part we will test the safety of different doses of the drug over 4 weeks of treatment, to identify a dose that is safe and appropriate for part two. In the second part we will give this dose to 18 RA patients for 12 weeks. We will check the patients' symptoms and perform scans of their joints at the start and end of the treatment. We will also take small samples of joint tissue (biopsies). These scans and biopsies will help us to decide whether the treatment is working, and how.