Figure 3.

Schema for potential drug target identification from players in RA synovium. Path from omics-derived candidate genes in FLS and inflammatory macrophages to new therapeutics for RA is based on selection of candidate genes on the basis of various factors such as functional evidences. Their amenability to drug discovery may be assessed by preclinical and clinical inhibitor studies. Structural parameters such as availability, refining of functional domain structures and physicochemical properties of binding site residues need to be considered for computational drug discovery involving virtual high throughput screening of chemical library databases or SBDD approach. FLS, fibroblast-like synoviocytes; SBDD, structure-based drug design.