Gene therapy for arthritis 1996-1999

Gene therapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a relatively novel therapeuti c concept. At present, two clinical trials are ongoing which evaluate the s afety of ex vivo gene transfer into synoviocytes. However, it is anticipate d that the number of clinical trials evaluating anti-inflammatory gene tran sfer strategies will increase significantly within the near future. This re view summarises the pertinent patent situation for arthritis gene therapy f rom 1996 to 1999. A patent search with the keywords arthritis and gene ther apy revealed 65 patent filings during this time period. In this report, we describe and discuss a selection of patent applications filed for novel the rapeutic strategies, enabling gene delivery, and expression systems into re levant cell populations (e.g., synoviocytes, chondrocytes and mesenchymal s tem cells). For the future, we envision that gene discovery efforts in conn ection with functional genomics will provide a wealth of novel patentable i nformation hopefully leading to innovative gene therapy approaches for rheu matic diseases.