The absence of a protein that activates the body’s antiviral defenses can cause a rare rheumatoid-like autoinflammatory condition that is treatable with an FDA-approved class of drugs known as TNF (tumor necrosis factor) inhibitors, a global research team led by Mount Sinai has found.
The condition, which is now termed TBK1 deficiency, was previously known to scientists but its name, cause and treatment were identified for the first time in the study published August 6 in Cell.
