Molecular mechanisms in rheumatic diseases: rationale for novel drug development - introduction.

Novel therapies for treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA) will largely be developed as a consequence of our improved understanding of immune-mediated inflammatory responses that regulate the progression of the disease process. This Special Mini "Hot-Topic" Issue of Anti-Inflammatory & Anti-Allergy Agents in Medicinal Chemistry, entitled, Molecular Mechanisms in Rheumatic Diseases: Rationale for Novel Drug Development explores several recent developments in how new drugs will be designed for the therapy of RA by employing proteomic databases and other wellvalidated computational strategies. Furthermore, recent advances in the recognition that pro-inflammatory cytokines and the interferon family of proteins activate intracellular signal transduction pathways which control immune-mediated inflammatory responses as well as the way in which newly identified regulators of inflammation such as the Toll-like receptors contribute to RA are also discussed.