Animal models of arthritic disease: influence of novel compared with classical antirheumatic agents

To be of real value, models of arthritis should be close enough to the human diseases to enable rational drug discovery for halting or even reversing these crippling afflictions. Unfortunately this is not yet totally so, and our existing models of arthritis are frequently criticized for both their failure to replicate the human condition, and to reliably demonstrate the disease-modifying qualities of gold and penicillamine, the mainstays of human therapy. Clearly we live in an imperfect world; nevertheless penicillamine has been found active in one model of arthritis, after considerable, patient experimentation1, and clobuzarit (Clozic® ICI), a molecule with the ability to slow down the erosive progression of rheumatoid arthritis, is active in various models of polyarthritis in the rat2. Precedent has therefore been set, and this success, though limited, is sufficient to justify optimism that further refinement of arthritis models will lead to disease-modifying therapy for arthritic disease.