Bacterial infection is known to trigger a number of autoimmune disorders, an observation that indicates a potentially important role for antibiotics in treating these diseases. Indeed, results from an experimental model of autoimmune arthritis in mice suggest that antibiotics can prevent the onset of disease.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Robertson, K. A., Volmink, J. A. & Mayosi, B. M. Antibiotics for the prevention of acute rheumatic fever: a meta-analysis. BMC Cardiovasc. Disord. 5, 11 (2005).
Wu, H. J. et al. Gut-residing segmented filamentous bacteria drive autoimmune arthritis via T helper 17 cells. Immunity 32, 815–827 (2010).
Kouskoff, V. et al. Organ-specific disease provoked by systemic autoimmunity. Cell 87, 811–822 (1996).
Iwakami, K. et al. Arthritogenic T cell epitope in glucose-6-phosphate isomerase induced arthritis. Arthritis Res. Ther. 10, R130 (2008).
Breckenridge, A., Dollery, C. T., Worlledge, S. M., Holborow, E. J. & Johnson, G. D. Positive direct Coombs tests and antinuclear factor in patients treated with methyldopa. Lancet 2, 1265–1267 (1967).
Schlosstein, L., Terasaki, P. I., Bluestone, R. & Pearson, C. M. High association of an HL-A antigen W27 with ankylosing spondylitis. N. Engl. J. Med. 288, 704–706 (1973).
Fielder, M. et al. Molecular mimicry and ankylosing spondylitis: possible role of a novel sequence in pullulanase of Klebsiella pneumoniae. FEBS Lett. 369, 243–248 (1995).
Wallin, J., Hillert, J., Olerup, O., Carlsson, B. & Ström, H. Association of rheumatoid arthritis with a dominant DR1/Dw4/Dw14 sequence motif but not with T cell receptor beta chain gene alleles or haplotypes. Arthritis Rheum. 34, 1416–1424 (1991).
Ebringer, A., Rashid, T. & Wilson, C. Rheumatoid arthritis, Proteus, anti-CCP antibodies and Karl Popper. Autoimmun. Rev. 9, 216–223 (2010).
Stone, M., Fortin, P. R., Pacheco-Tena, C. & Inman, R. D. Should tetracycline treatment be used more extensively for rheumatoid arthritis? Metaanalysis demonstrates clinical benefit with reduction in disease activity. J. Rheumatol. 30, 2112–2122 (2003).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The author declares no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ebringer, A. Gut-mediated autoimmune arthritis treated with antibiotics. Nat Rev Rheumatol 6, 622–623 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2010.163
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2010.163
