Novel anti-inflammatory intervention in PMR and GCA

In the next decades, inflammatory rheumatic diseases like Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) and Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA) will increase with the aging of the population. PMA and GCA affect more women than men (older than 50 years) and the cause for these diseases is not completely understood. PMR patients suffer from pain and stiffness of the shoulder, neck and pelvic girdles muscles. GCA patients suffer diverse symptoms like headache, fatigue, visual symptoms and if left untreated it may end in blindness. In some patients, both diseases occur simultaneously. The standard therapy is treatment with high doses of corticosteroids what presents many undesired side effects for the patients (e.g. osteoporosis, cataracts, diabetes). In our project, we will use cells obtained from patients and cell- and animal-models to enquiry about the role of the innate immune system in the initiation and progression of PMR and GCA. We will also evaluate the possibility of developing novel corticosteroid-sparing therapies to increase the patients quality of life.