Current Prospects in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Pathophysiology, Genetics, and Treatments

Abstract: An autoimmune inflammatory disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), predominantly affects the synovium joint lining, augmenting disability, early mortality, and socioeconomic difficulty. Therefore, current updates on pharmacological therapies are crucial for developing drugs to treat the disease at each stage. This review attempts to compile a thorough analysis of current developments in our knowledge of RA pathogenesis and diseasemodifying drugs, with the aim of providing insights for next-generation RA therapeutics. According to the literature, the most successful drugs for treatment techniques described so far in this area include (cs) DMARDs (sub-class of disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs DMARDs), tsDMARDS (targeted synthetic DMARDS), and bDMARDs (biological DMARDs). However, current pharmacologic therapy consisting of biological, conventional, and potentially viable small molecule DMARDs remains the cornerstone of rheumatoid arthritis treatment with which significant progress toward disease remission has been accomplished. The pathobiology of RA involves cytokine messengers such as B and T-cells, and an intricate interplay of pro-inflammatory cytokines responsible for activating and developing effector cells, in turn, accountable for local disease and systemic symptoms. Despite the fact that the cause of rheumatoid arthritis is not known, new treatments have been created as a result of better approaches towards the biology of the disease. As they target molecules directly implicated in the genesis of rheumatoid arthritis, these drugs may be more effective, targeted, and less harmful in the short and long term than standard therapies.