Hello Everyone! Today I am going to be discussing the drug adalimumab also known as Humira which is manufactured by the drug company AbbVie. This is a monoclonal antibody drug used to treat a few different medical conditions including rheumatoid arthritis. Monoclonal antibodies according to medicine.net are man-made antibodies that help stop different proteins from attacking your own immune system, and therefore are used for autoimmune disorders. These antibodies are made from cloned immune cells introduced to the same antigen. These monoclonal antibodies attack against one particular antigen by binding onto the same epitope. The purpose of adalimumab is to reduce the signs and symptoms of various diseases caused by autoimmune impairment. Humira reduces rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn’s disease, and chronic plaque psoriasis, among other diseases. Humira is intended to help people function in their daily lives better.
Adalimumab works to reduce inflammation in different cases like arthritis and Crohn’s disease because the constant inflammation causes deterioration of the joints and colon in these diseases. This causes the individual suffering with these types of diseases a lot of pain and discomfort. Tumor necrosis factor is one of the key triggers of inflammation in these diseases. Adalimumab works by binding to tumor necrosis factor alpha and this way it cannot cause the inflammatory response which reduces inflammation, destruction of the joints, colon, or whichever part of the body is displaying the symptoms, and pain for the individual. As like many other drugs, there are also side effects…. and a lot of them! I’m going to list them all out for you and to make it more bearable and less scary, imagine I’m playing you a happy song with cute puppies on the screen like these drug commercials do! Alright here they are:
-Cancer (what a way to start out am i right?)
-Serious infection
-Hepatitis B infection if you are a carrier
-Allergic reactions
-Nervous system problems (numbness, tingling, weakness, dizziness)
-Blood Problems (bruising and bleeding easily, paleness, fever)
-Heart failure
-Immune reactions (similar to lupus symptoms)
-Liver problems
-Psoriasis
-Injection site reactions
-Upper respiratory tract infections
-headaches
-rash
-nausea
-Infection symptoms (i.e. fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches, cough, shortness of breath, blood in phlegm, weight loss, diarrhea or stomach pain, sores on body, burning urination, frequent urination, fatigue)
OKAY! that was a lot!! Those side effects are scary, especially because some of the more serious ones can lead to death. These side effects make sense though because Humira causes a decrease in inflammation due to new antibodies. If the immune system is compromised like this to some capacity, this can allow for development of these serious problems and infections because the immune system won’t be able to respond as well. You are more susceptible to disease while taking this drug and you cannot use Humira if you have another infection like tuberculosis because your immune system won’t be able to respond to the infection as efficiently, and this could be dangerous. Due to the fact that Humira stops inflammation, which is a key response to infections, you will not be able to recover efficiently like you would with a non-compromised immune system. Through Humira, the innate immune system is getting impacted negatively. This is because the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is a part of the innate immune system because it causes inflammation and the drug causes a negative response because it works to inhibit the TNF so that there is not as much of an inflammatory response.
Alright, that is it folks! I think we are all collectively scared of how serious side effects for drugs can be, but nonetheless, thank you for staying with me through this talk about Humira! I will see you in my next blog post!
Microbiology 