Posted 1 year ago by Wales Gene Park
Brief Summary Polymyositis (PM), dermatomyositis (DM) and inclusion body myositis (IBM)belong to a group of inflammatory muscle disorders, of unknown cause, that are characterised by skeletal muscle inflammation and progressive muscular weakness, which can be debilitating and chronic in nature (occasionally fatal). The current treatment options for these conditions are steroids and various other immunosuppressive drugs. However, these are usually only partially effective at reducing symptoms, and their toxic side effects also limit their usefulness. In order to develop more specific treatments for myositis in the future (and therefore more effective), it is important to understand the exact mechanisms that cause the disease in the first instance. In other similar inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus (SLE), it is known that changes to the Human Leukocyte Antigen(HLA), as well as certain inflammatory cytokines, are involved in both the development and expression of the disease. As many...