Episode 78. New Agents in Rheumatology with Dr Andrew Teichtahl
The past two decades have witnessed dramatic changes in the approach to managing rheumatologic conditions, born of a wider understanding of cellular biology, immunology, and the pathophysiology of inflammation we have consequently seen an explosion in the development and availability of both Biologic medications and small molecules for medical applications.
Some of these products are designed to interfere with cytokine function or production and include:
· TNF inhibitors
· TNF receptor fusion proteins
· IL6 inhibitors
· IL-17 inhibitors
· IL-12/23 inhibitors
· T-cell modulators
· B cell modulators
In addition, the development of small molecules as Janus kinase inhibitors has opened up new channels for inflammatory modulation.
It was a great privilege to welcome rheumatologist Dr Andrew Teichtahl to this podcast to help us understand how to apply this new age of science to the practice of rheumatology. Andrew is a senior staff specialist at the Alfred Hospital and the National Health and Medical Research Council Fellow at the Baker International Diabetes Institute. He is a chief investigator on two clinical trials funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and has authored over 75 publications in internationally peer reviewed journals. In his former life he was also a physiotherapist (a degree he attained with honours) and is passionate in his practice of rheumatology with expertise across rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis.
References:
Dr Andrew Teichtahl: www.arthritiscentre.com.au
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6911251/ New era of treatment with biologics in rheumatology – is it time to shift paradigms in treatment with biologics? Anna Felis-Giemza
www.nature.com/articles/nrrheum.2009.197, Are new agents needed to treat RA ?
https://arthritis-research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1478-6354-13-S1-S5 Advances in rheumatology: new targeted therapeutics
To be a guest on the show or provide some feedback, I’d love to hear from you: manager@gihealth.com.au
Dr Luke Crantock MBBS, FRACP, is a gastroenterologist in practice for over 25 years. He is the founder of The Centre for GI Health, based in Melbourne Australia and is passionate about educating General Practitioners and patients on disease prevention and how to manage and improve their digestive health.