Gold compounds for rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

a new gold comp oundfortreating rheumatoid arthritis (RA), is unique in that itproduces its therapeutic benefit when administered by the oral route. Currently used gold preparations (sodium aurothiomalate, aurothioglucose) must be given by injection to be effective. Auranofin has been used in the treatment of RA patients in clinical trials, and is comparable in efficacy to presently used injectable agents. Side effects with auranofin are mild in, nature and result in fewer withdrawals from therapy than do injectable gold preparations.

Intrinsic therapeutic applications of noble metal nanoparticles: past, present and future

“…Historically gold salts have been used to treat a multitude of inflammatory diseases (see Fig. 3) 179 . Clinicians first started using gold complexes the early 1900s to help treat rheumatoid arthritis 180 .…”

X-ray crystal structure of (1-methylthyminato)triethylphosphinegold(I)

“…The most notable compound in clinical use at present, auranofin [a phosphinegold(I) thioglucose derivative], is used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (Sutton, 1986). Auranofin has also been shown to exhibit some cytotoxic properties and consequently other gold phosphine compounds have been examined for anti-tumor activity .…”

The Chemistry of Gold Drugs

“…It was not until 1890 that Koch discovered that the gold(I) dicyanide ion had antitubercular activity, although this was subsequently shown to have little benefit for the treatment of the disease. 2 During the search for non-toxic gold(I) complexes with antitubercular activity, gold(I) thiolate complexes were synthesized. These were used extensively during "the golden decade" from [1925][1926][1927][1928][1929][1930][1931][1932][1933][1934][1935] for the treatment of tuberculosis.…”