Researchers Now Know How Gold Helps Fight Arthritis

Scientists at Duke University Medical Center think that they may have found the answer as to how and why gold seems to easy the pain of arthritis as well as other inflammatory diseases.

This is far from a new form or treatment. Injections of gold salts were first used back in the early 1900's. But the treatments were not easy. The shots could take months to take effect and then there were the side effects, such as rashes, mouth sores, kidney damage and in some very rare cases, there were problems with the ability of the bone marrow to produce new blood cells.

In modern times the usual treatments are drugs like methotrexate and biologically engineered drugs with the gold salts only being used when nothing else remained.

Dr. David Pisetsky, chief of the division of rheumatology and immunology in the department of medicine at Duke, and the lead researcher on the project has had a long time interest in the in a certain molecule named HMBG1which is known to provoke inflammation, which is the main process involved in the development of rheumatoid arthritis. This molecule acts differently in different situations. When it is inside the nucleus of a cell, it plays a key roll in the process of transcription, which is the process that converts genetic information in the DNA to its RNA equivalent. And when it is released from the cell, which can happen either by a normal process, or by the death of the cell, this is when it becomes the stimulant to the immune system and enhances the inflammation.

Dr. Pisetsky and colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden were able to stimulate both mouse and human immune system cells to secrete HMGB1. Then they treated them with gold salts. The results found that the gold salts were able to block the release of HMGB1from the cell nucleus. This should be able to lessen the amount of HMGB1that is available and thereby weaken the inflammation.

The next step is going to be to see if the results are the same in animals and humans and not just in the lab.