Ruxolitinib at the ACR 2012 in Washington

Ruxolitinib is a JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor, which could be useful to treat rheumatoid arthritis. There has been a study being presented at the 2008 ACR meeting, here’s an article referring to this study. http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/2739159. Nothing new at the EULAR 2012 meeting in Berlin. And ruxolitinib hasn't been a hot topic at the ACR 2012. But there has been a study mentioning the drug (Abstract No. 1807). Anna Yarilina and colleagues looked at: "Regulation of Inflammatory Responses in Tumor Necrosis Factor-Activated and Rheumatoid Arthritis Synovial Macrophages by Janus Kinase Inhibitors". Conclusion: "Taken together, our data demonstrate that JAK inhibitors suppress inflammatory functions of macrophages, in part by altering cell responses to the key pathogenic cytokine TNF. These findings suggest that suppression of macrophages and innate immunity may contribute to the therapeutic efficacy of JAK inhibitors in RA." There are differences between these two JAK inhibitors: tofacitinib "significantly decreased IL6 expression in RA synovial macrophages", both ruxolitinib and tofacitinib increased formation of osteoclast-like cells, but only tofacitinib "dramatically increased resorptive activity of these cells".

Strange that we havn't heard more about ruxolitinib, yet. Baricitinib seems to be doing much better. As the first study has been presented 2008 and nothing followed, it might mean that ruxolitinib has been abandoned because of mercantile rather than medical reasons. I'll stay on the look-out during 2013.