[Intracellular signaling transduction pathways. Potential targets in the treatment of rheumatic diseases].

Even though biologics, frequently combined with conventional DMARD therapy, represent a significant advance in the treatment of rheumatic diseases, they have disadvantages such as high costs of production and parenteral administration. Therefore, oral small-molecule drugs are a potential alternative. Major targets for such small-molecule therapeutics are intracellular signaling molecules. This article will briefly discuss potential intracellular targets for therapeutics in the field of rheumatic diseases. How therapeutic signaling inhibitors will be used in clinical practice will depend on a number of factors: their overall effectiveness, their effectiveness in patients who did not or insufficiently respond to conventional DMARD therapy and/or treatment with biologics, their effectiveness when combined with other therapeutics, their side effects, and their cost-benefit ratio.The English full-text version of this article is available at SpringerLink (under "Supplemental").