
THURSDAY, May 18, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- An investigational drug may hit the reset button on a faulty immune system for some people with rheumatoid arthritis.Rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the body misfires against its own joints and tissues, causing joint pain, stiffness, fatigue and other symptoms.The drug, peresolimab, is a monoclonal antibody that stimulates human programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), which serves as the brakes on the immune system, said study author Dr. Ajay Nirula. He's vice president of immunology for Lilly Research Laboratories in San Diego, which is developing peresolimab. It funded the new research, which was published May 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine.PD-1 is a protein found on T cells that helps keep...