Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common autoimmune disease worldwide. Growing at nearly 4% per year, it affects nearly 0.5% of the world’s adult population. Extremely disabling, this inflammatory joint disease reduces life expectancy by 5 to 10 years and is often accompanied by extra-articular damage: lungs, heart, vessels, skin, eyes, etc.
Until now, treatments focused on symptoms, but a team of researchers from Toulouse and Montpellier, supported by the French Arthritis foundation (supports research on rheumatism and musculoskeletal diseases since 1989), have developed a specific therapeutic approach that could cure people with RA.
Attacking the cells that cause joint damage
Founded in 2023 by professors Guy Serre and Christian Jorgensen and based at the Maison de la Recherche of the University of Toulouse, the start-up Arthritis4Cure is at the origin of a major advance which is based on the ability to target and destroy specifically B lymphocytes and plasma cells which produce the autoantibodies responsible for the joint inflammation characteristic of the disease. Unlike current treatments which indiscriminately eliminate a large part of the immune system at the same time as B lymphocytes, the biotech’s innovative targeted therapy makes it possible to attack only the pathogenic cells causing joint damage.
“The originality of our approach lies in our ambition not to treat rheumatoid arthritis, but to cure it. The idea is to go to patients to very specifically destroy the clones of cells which produce the autoantibodies which are at the origin of the pathological events. There is currently no drug of this type,” explains Lionel Comole, general director of the Arthritis foundation.
Ultimately, the biomedicine could be administered to all patients suffering from the disease and induce total remission after a course of a few months. In addition, the revolutionary treatment would make it possible to avoid the infectious risks linked to immunosuppression as well as the serious side effects inherent to current therapies.
Fundraising for the first clinical trials
After demonstrating the therapeutic effectiveness of its approach on In Vitro and In Vivo models, the biotech, made up of a staff of five researchers, hopes to begin its clinical trials on humans in 2027. Part of these tests will be carried out within of the new “Immune4Cure” IHU, at the Montpellier University Hospital, also a secondary establishment of the company.
“We will treat patients who are refractory to traditional treatment based on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and biotherapy. These people have active rheumatoid arthritis and high antibodies. On them, targeted therapy will be able to fully prove its effectiveness”explains who is leading the project.
Today, the objective of Arthritis4Cure is the pre-industrial development of the first therapeutic molecules and the production of batches of biomedicines for clinical trials. As such, it has just closed its first fundraising of 3 million euros from private investors. The company, which estimates its funding needs between 20 and 30 million euros, should open its capital to new investors from 2026.
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