The treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with NF-kappaB inhibitors

The nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) participates in the expression of a wide variety of genes that are involved in the regulation of host immune and inflammatory responses. In rheumatoid arthritis, the activation of NF-kappaB has been detected in synovium and lymphocytes, and induction of arthritis in mice produced strong NF-kappaB transcriptional activity in the affected joints. These evidences suggest that NF-kappaB is an interesting therapeutic target in rheumatoid arthritis. In this review, we are going to review briefly the signaling pathway that leads to NF-kappaB activation and then discuss the possibility that the inhibition of NF-kappaB might provide novel treatment to inhibit bone destruction in rheumatoid arthritis.