Update on disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs in the treatment of systemic sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis is a systemic disorder that is characterized by excessive collagen deposition, autoimmunity, and extensive vascular damage that involves multiple organ systems. Systemic sclerosis may affect multiple organs simultaneously or at different times, and, thus, has a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations and severity The involved target organs include skin, muscle, joints, nerves, vasculature, kidney, heart, lung, and gastrointestinal tracts. Although there is no cure for this disease, the morbidity and the mortality have improved significantly over the last decade. Moreover, because of a better understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease itself, many disease-modifying agents that are aimed at different therapeutic targets have been investigated. This article focuses on therapies that are, or may be, disease-modifying in the treatment of systemic sclerosis. We review the effectiveness of current treatment modalities and their disease-modifying properties.