The ARCADIA consortium has been enabled by £3m of funding from Arthritis UK. It brings together leaders in the field of inflammatory arthritis research from the UK and Italy to answer the important question of ‘When has remission been achieved?’ This could help people to safely stop their medications at the right time in the future.
There is no accurate biological test for determining when a patient with inflammatory arthritis is truly in a state of disease-free remission. This means that clinicians, alongside patients and their families, make treatment decisions without having a full picture of whether their arthritis has been resolved in the joints. Some individuals remain on treatment unnecessarily and others come off treatment only to quickly relapse.
Researchers and clinicians, from the Kennedy Institute, the Universities of Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle, Bristol, and Liverpool, alongside University College London Great Ormond Street Hospital, Kings College London and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Italy, aim to undertake clinical studies to accurately determine the true absence of disease.
Chris Buckley, Kennedy Professor of Translational Rheumatology and Director of Clinical Research at the Kennedy Institute explained: ‘The ARCADIA consortium is based on over a decade of collaboration between many of the organisations involved. History teaches that cure requires an understanding of cause. This partnership has a bold aim: to determine the cellular cause of inflammatory forms of arthritis across the lifespan so that we can deliver a cure for people with arthritis.’
Inflammatory arthritis includes several different types of arthritis including rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). Collectively, it affects more than 1 in 100 people, not only in later life but also in childhood and adolescence. The disease can have a profound impact on daily life and sometimes leads to long term disability. It occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks the joints, causing inflammation experienced as swelling, stiffness and pain.