Description: In the quest for the causes of and potential treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, Japanese researchers have identified a protein that could be a target for future therapy.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic and disabling autoimmune disease that first attacks the fluid that surrounds the joints, causing it to thicken and grow abnormally, damaging the joints and surrounding cartilage rather than protecting them. More than 2 million Americans suffer from the illness, according to the Arthritis Foundation.

By identifying a protein that appears to be one of the culprits in the unhealthy buildup of this fluid, which is called synovial fluid, Dr. Yasushi Miura and his colleagues at Kobe University School of Medicine hope that a new, targeted medication can be developed to treat the disease.

"The protein Decoy receptor 3 (DcR3) is one of the pathological factors of RA and can be a new therapeutic target for treatment," said Miura, an associa