Kaymakcalan Z, Sakorafas P, Bose S et al. Clin Immunol 2009;131:308–16.
The anti-tumor necrosis factor-α (anti-TNF-α) agents etanercept, adalimumab, and infliximab have been shown to be effective in the treatment of a number of conditions, including psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis. However, the efficacy of these agents is variable in other diseases; for example, only adalimumab and infliximab have shown efficacy in treating Crohn’s disease. The current authors investigated these differences in clinical efficacy by evaluating the TNF-α-binding and complement-activating properties of these agents, and found that these properties do not explain the differences in clinical efficacy of these agents.
In the current study, Kaymakcalan et al. performed advanced investigations on three anti-tumor necrosis factor-α (anti-TNF-α) drugs: etanercept, adalimumab, and infliximab. These studies were carried out to determine if the TNF-α-binding and complement-activating properties of these agents could explain the observed differences in clinical efficacy in treating different diseases.