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Previous Volume 351:1909 October 28, 2004 Number 18 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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To the Editor: Edwards et al. (June 17 issue)¹ show that the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab provides effective therapy for rheumatoid arthritis. They report that the effects of rituximab are not associated with changes in serum immunoglobulin levels, suggesting that this anti-CD20 antibody alleviates symptoms associated with rheumatoid arthritis through an antibody-independent mechanism. In their study, serious bacterial infections occurred in only four patients (3.3 percent) in the rituximab groups. Nevertheless, we suspect that the use of this therapeutic protein may lead to severe infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, sepsis, and viremia.

The target of rituximab, CD20, has been reported . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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