Side Effects of New Immuno-Modulators (abstract)

Medications used in the management of rheumatologic disorders include therapeutic agents with varying mechanisms of action. The older well known drugs include glucocorticoids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and the antimetabolites and cytotoxic medications such as cyclophosphamide, mycophenolate mofetil, methotrexate and azathioprine (disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs - DMARDs). Of particular interest, however, are the drugs known as biologics. These drugs are not derived from compounds with predictable chemical structures; rather they are complex molecules or mixtures of molecules that are produced by the cells of living microorganisms, plants or animals, often using recombinant DNA.