Abstract
It has been shown that immunomodulators are effective as a remittive agent in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) . But their modes of action are not fully understood yet although they are significantly different from the effects of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in that they exert minimal nonspecific anti-inflammatory effects. Most of the immunomodulators have been shown to have in vitro and in vivo effects on the immune system which are probably related to their therapeutic effectiveness. In the present study, we investigated in vitro effects of two immunomodulators, lobenzarit (CCA) and bucillamine, on the production of immunoglobulins and class-specific rheumatoid factors (RF) by blood mononuclear cells from normal donors. Mononuclear cells were cultured 7 days with or without varying concentrations of drugs in the presence of PWM, and supernatants were measured for immunoglobulins, IgG and IgM, and IgGRF and IgMRF. Both CCA and bucillamine significantly inhibited the production of IgG and IgM and IgGRF and IgMRF in dose dependent fashion. Both drugs exerted significant inhibitory effects in vitro B lymphocyte dependent immunoglobulin and RF synthesis at pharmacological concentrations. The properties of these inhibitory capacity of CCA and bucillamine did not differ each other. Moreover, there were no differences of inhibitory capacity between these two drugs and gold sodium thiomalate tested as positive control. These results obtained suggest that CCA and bucillamine have immunomodulatory characteristics which may be related to their therapeutic activity in RA.
