Purify Antigen-specific B Cells From Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease characterized by the presence of autoantibodies directed against citrullinated proteins, called ACPAs. These antibodies are very specific to RA, and the severity of the disease is closely correlated with the level of these ACPAs, even though they appear much earlier than the clinical signs. Current treatments by biotherapies are effective but only treat the inflammatory symptoms of the disease or, on the contrary, induce a global immunosuppression with a depletion of all B lymphocytes.

Contrary to the current approaches, the CURE RA project proposes a double innovative character:

• The project aims at specifically destroying B lymphocytes expressing / or secreting ACPAs for a more specific approach to RA, without inducing immunosuppression.
• The new therapeutic molecule is entirely original and has no equivalent at present, it uses the target antigens of autoantibodies, the citrullinated peptides, as tools to destroy the pathogenic B cells that express/produce these autoantibodies.