ABSTRACT
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common eause of autoimmune arthritis in the world.In RA patients serum or plasma cytokine levels may indicate the severity of the disease.Cytokine gene polymorphism can be used as a marker of RA susceptibility and severity.Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic connective tissue disease.Not only joints, but other organs (lungs.lymph nodes, spleen, skin, heart or eyes) may also he involved.'Hie main goal of treatment for rheumatoid arthritis is to avoid joint destruction through early and aggressive anti-inflammatory treatment.In the past few decades, various therapies were used for patients when methotrexate was ineffective or intolerant to alter the joint and systemic prognosis and the patients' disability.Among them, cytokine targeted therapy have long been identified to be the most promising therapy.This article re- views the effector functions of different inflammatory factors and their role in the RA pathogenesis and the targeted inhibitors targeting inflammatory factors that can currently be used for the treatment of RA.