Importance of biologics in rheumatoid arthritis management

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune condition that causes chronic joint inflammation pain, eventually leading to significant bone and cartilage damage in the affected joint. Around the world, RA affects a large number of people in their later years. The most frequent joints affected by RA are the elbow, shoulder and metacarpophalangeal joints. Conventional medication previously only treated the symptoms of RA. To treat the etiology of RA, biological disease modifying anti-rheumatic medicines (bDMARDs) target biological receptors such as TNF-alpha, IL-1 and IL-6. This review article discusses the benefits of using biological disease modifiers.