Nexxus Scotland

McInnes, Iain

Professor of Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology, Immunology, Infection and Inflammation Division, University of Glasgow.

The West of Scotland is rapidly becoming known as one of the top centres for research into inflammatory diseases, and Professor Iain McInnes is one of the area's leading scientists responsible for that reputation.

Prof McInnes's research interests lie primarily in inflammatory synovitis that is central to both rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, resulting in a distinguished career path which has seen him study the causes of inflammation for over a decade.

In 1993 he received a three-year Wellcome Clinical Fellowship to study inflammation in rheumatoid joints, which was followed by another two years at the world-famous National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland in the USA. There he began to look at psoriatic arthritis, a form of arthritis connected to the skin condition psoriasis - a line of research which he is currently exploring with great interest.

Returning to Scotland in 1998 as a lecturer at the University of Glasgow, he made his way through the ranks of academia, becoming a professor in 2002. Since he returned from the NIH he has continued to focus on the inflammation pathways involved in rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis.

The basis of much of this research, especially over the last five years, has been on a group of proteins known as cytokines, which are fundamental regulators of the immune response in the human body.

Cytokines are known to be of great importance in both rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, by their ability to switch on white blood cells when they get into the joint. They also affect the cells of cartilage and bone and lead directly therefore to the devastating damage that is characteristic of these forms of arthritis.

What Prof McInnes and his team have been looking at is how to inhibit these cytokines so as to curb the immune response, and therefore reduce the damage to the joint.

Traditional drugs to treat arthritis have been very non-specific and often toxic. Recently newer drugs which block a cytokine known as TNF-Alpha have been introduced to good effect, but these are effective in only a proportion of patients. Even so, the market value of this treatment is estimated at around $4 billion.

Together with his former mentor Prof Foo ‘Eddy' Liew, Prof McInnes has been looking at a recently-identified cytokine known as interleukin-15, or IL-15, which may yield a more effective drug.

Prof McInnes says: "We discovered that IL-15 is closely associated with arthritis, and have already taken an anti-IL-15 antibody into phase two of clinical trials."

"An approved drug could be many years away, but if successful, the commercial possibilities are enormous. It's a very exciting time for inflammation research."

As this line of research continues, Prof McInnes has also discovered that the cytokines present in joints affected by rheumatoid arthritis are also present in psoriasis. He has started to work on new targets for inhibitors, and has found that because many of these cytokines may be common in the two diseases, the treatments may be common.

One of his most exciting achievements to date has been related to heart disease and stroke patients.

Patients with arthritis have a higher risk of both and this can mean their life expectancy can be reduced by six to eight years. However, Prof McInnes has been able to prove that statin medicines used to treat vascular diseases can also be effective in rheumatoid arthritis patients in reducing not only their potential risk of heart attack and stroke but also directly reduce the arthritis itself.

Prof McInnes says: "We were the first research group to prove this benefit of statins in rheumatoid - I think it is very important that physicians working in this part of the world are mindful of heart disease."

He adds that there has been a proactive approach to ensuring that vascular disease and its related conditions are given due attention, largely in response to the West of Scotland's appalling record of health problems, and in particular heart disease.

"We have great links between all of the different research areas in the West of Scotland and this affords us an opportunity to reap terrific benefits from the interrelated expertise we have here," he says.

 "A lot of extremely encouraging research is currently being carried out here, and with each new discovery we're that little bit closer to finding an effective treatment for arthritis and heart disease."

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