TNF–dependent maturation of local dendritic cells is critical for activating the adaptive immune response to virus infection
I know this is a very long title, but I wanted to illustrate a point. TNF-alpha is an integral part of the immune response and we are only now just beginning to understand how it works. Using the new class of drugs for Crohn’s and rheumatoid arthritis that blocks TNF-alpha just seems dangerous to me if we don’t even fully understand what it does.
PNAS — Abstracts: Trevejo et al. 98 (21): 12162