Repurposing clinically approved drug could curb blood vessel inflammation

A chronic autoimmune disease called giant cell arteritis (GCA) can cause inflammation of large blood vessels—a potentially fatal condition. Researchers recently found that a drug called Tofacitinib, which is approved for rheumatoid arthritis, reduced chronic inflammation and related complications in medium and large arteries in mice carrying human arteries and immune cells from GCA patients. The study, which was published in Circulation and partly funded by NHLBI, offers an attractive alternative to corticosteroid treatment for the management of large vessel inflammation.