Anakinra: Researchers discover drug used for adult rheumatoid arthritis helps children

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Researchers discover drug used for adult rheumatoid arthritis helps children

Story by Lovell (Contact)

10:18 p.m. Tuesday, May 16, 2006

http://www.49abcnews.com/news/2006/may/16/researchers_discover_drug_used_adult_r\

heumatoid_ar/

Seven-year-old Zhu can't contain her enthusiasm as she describes

her first-ever ski trip.

" Then you have to let go at the top, " she said.

You can't blame her. It was a trip her family never thought she'd make.

" She was very sick. Yeah, she was very sick, " said Joy Huang, mother.

When she was two-and-a-half, was diagnosed with systemic onset

juvenile arthritis, an aggressive disease that affects more than joints.

" These kids have fever, they can have inflammation of the heart, they can

have inflammation of the liver, " said Dr. Virginia Pascual, Pediatric

Rheumatologist.

Steroid therapy is standard treatment, but the side-effects can be as bad as

the disease.

" She wasn't growing, " Huang said.

" They can have little bones, they can have cataracts. So you can imagine

that this is very bad for the children, " Pascual said.

Then a remarkable discovery. Baylor researchers found that kids with

systemic onset arthritis make too much of a protein called interleukin one.

Anakinra, a drug for adult rheumatoid arthritis, blocks interleukin one.

" Nobody thought about using this medication for other types of arthritis, "

Pascual said.

When Dr. Pascual tested the drug in children...

" Basically in 48 hours, the kids were back to normal, " she said. " The fever

went away, the arthritis went away, and they were feeling for the first time

in a long time like healthy children. "

" We were just so excited, " Huang said.

gets daily injections of the drug and she's off steroids and has

grown six inches.

" I play. I go outside and run now, " Zhu said.

And she looks forward to her next ski trip.