An inflammatory protein well known to cause rheumatoid arthritis is now found to be associated with inflammatory diseases like heart value diseases including aneurysms, reported a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. 

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A team of researchers from Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Australia including Dr. Philippe Bouillet, Dr. Derek Lacey and colleagues, identified the regions of DNA responsible for the production of inflammatory protein called tumour necrosis factor (TNF), reported Eurekalert.

People suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease named rheumatoid arthritis produce abundant of TNF which recruits immune cells that affect the joints and thereby keeping the body in prolonged state of inflammation. Though the link between rheumatoid arthritis and TNF is established for a long time now, the regions of DNA necessary for making the molecule unstable has just been identified recently, credits to by Bouillet and team.

"People with rheumatoid arthritis have too much TNF in their joints and in their blood," Dr. Bouillet said. He also added, "We have identified a previously unknown way that the body destabilises the molecules during the process of TNF production to stop too much of the protein being made. We could essentially develop agents that put a spanner in the works, stopping the factory production of TNF."

The study makes a lot of sense because people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis must be given drugs to clean up the excess TNF in the body; whereas, prolonged exposure to the drug makes the patient unresponsive to the medication. The anti-TNF drug is most effective against arthritis particularly for those that developed resistance to other existing drugs, said Bouillet, according to SMH.

"This is the first time that we have linked the overproduction of TNF to heart valve disease," Bouillet said. "While it seems that genetics makes a substantial difference to the severity of the heart disease in our models, it does suggest that in humans we may be able to better diagnose heart valve disease in people with rheumatoid arthritis in the future."

Bouillet also noted that drugs currently in use for blocking and mopping up the TNF from the body could be burdensome for heart valves and therefore investigation on the effect of the existing drugs on the heart valves should be made. 

TagsArthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Heart Valve Disease, Aneurysms, TNF