Oral gold compound, auranofin (AF), is clinically useful for the treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as one of the disease modifying antirheumatic drugs, although its mechanism of action is not determined yet. In the present study, the effects of auranofin on production of soluble IL-2 receptor (sIL-2R), IL-4, interferon γ (IFN γ) and IL-6 by mononuclear cells (MNC) were studied.
MNC were isolated from the peripheral blood of 4 RA patients. MNC of each patients were cultured with or without AF for 24 hrs and the supernatants obtained by centrifugation were measured for sIL-2R, IFNγ, IL-4 and IL-6 by ELISA kits.
AF at the concentrations of 3μg/ml significantly inhibited production of sIL-2R, IL-4 and IL-6 in RA MNC. On the other hand, the inhibitory effects by gold sodium thiomalate and D-penicillamine were not significant.
The inhibition by AF of sIL-2R, IL-4 and IL-6 production by RA MNC may be one of the mechanisms by which AF shows clinical efficacy.
