For more than 75 years, gold-based drugs are being used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.

The new findings at HMS published at the Feb. 27 issue of Nature Chemical Biology states that special forms of gold, platinum, and other classes of medicinal metals work by stripping bacteria and virus particles from the grasp of a key immune system protein.

"We were searching for a new drug to treat autoimmune diseases," says Brian DeDecker, PhD, HMS post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Cell Biology and a study co-author. At the time of this work, DeDecker was in the Harvard Medical School Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology, which uses powerful chemical tools to illuminate complex biological processes and provide new leads for drug development. "But instead we discovered a biochemical mechanism that may help explain how an old drug works."

With the new understanding of this mechanism, according to Researchers at Harvard Medical School, it may now be possible to develop a new generation of gold-based drugs for treating rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases that are more effective with fewer side effects.

Source: Harvard Medical School, News Release