Sufferers of this type arthritis experience swollen painful joints when their immune system mistakenly attacks the healthy tissue around the joint.
Scientists have found that alterations in the DNA, known as epigenetic changes, could be behind the development of rheumatoid arthritis. These changes do not affect the DNA sequence, but regulate whether genes are activated or not.
A chemical tag could attach itself to a sequence of DNA, determining how the sequence is read, how the genes are used to create proteins and could affect the onset of the disease or determine the progression of the disease.
A study, carried out by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the United States and Karolinska Institute in Sweden, looked at DNA sequences and epigenetic changes in the white blood cells of more than 30 patients. Some suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and some did not.
A total of 10 changes in the DNA of those suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, compared to those who didn’t, and the fact that the tags increased the risk of developing the disease.
Currently, medication to treat rheumatoid arthritis involves drugs that affect the entire immune systems. This can have serious side effects on a patient’s health.
The discovery that changes in DNA can increase the risk of developing the condition, medicines in the future may be able to target those genes individually.
Epigenetic changes can be due to family history or as a result of environmental factors.