Tofacitinib suppresses disease activity and febrile attacks in a patient with coexisting rheumatoid arthritis and familial Mediterranean fever

• Main Authors: Kevser Gök, Gizem Cengiz, Kemal Erol, Salih Ozgocmen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Portuguesa de Reumatologia 2017-01-01
• Series: Acta Reumatológica Portuguesa
• Subjects: familial mediterranean fever; treatment; biological agents
• Online Access: http://www.actareumatologica.com/files/article/1160_tofacitinib_suppresses_disease_activity_and_febrile_attacks_in_a_patient_with_coexisting_rheumatoid_arthritis_and_familial_mediterranean_fever_file.pdf

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is the most common hereditary auto-inflammatory (periodic fever) syndrome, and usually successfully treated with colchicine. However, nearly 5-10% of FMF cases are resistant or intolerant to colchicine and treatment options are highly restricted in these cases. Biologics including anakinra, canakinumab, rilonacept, etanercept, infliximab, interferon-alpha, and tocilizumab are shown to have efficacy to control FMF attacks. Tofacitinib, a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor, is an orally administered non-biologic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Herein we report a female patient with coexisting RA and colchicine resistant FMF whose FMF attacks and disease activity were completely controlled after treatment with tofacitinib, a small-molecule JAK3 inhibitor.