'Single jab cure' for arthritis
Updated on 14 August 2008
A single injection "vaccine" that could help hundreds of thousands of rheumatoid arthritis sufferers is being developed by British scientists.
The jab contains cells which are taken from the patient's body, altered, and then put into affected joints.
It works by manipulating the patient's white blood cells so they supress the immune system and stop it attacking the joints.
Researchers at Newcastle University will now test the vaccine on people with the disease.
Professor Alan Silman, from the Arthritis Research Campaign, said: "This is an important potential cure."
John Isaacs from Newcastle University's Musculoskeletal Research Group, said that although the research is in its early stages it is "hugely exciting."
Rheumatoid arthritis affects around 350,000 people in Britain.
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