Biological agents in the treatment of uveitis

Inflammatory uveitis is a difficult condition to treat. Recently, a new class of drugs obtained by a biological process and therefore defined as “biologics” has been successfully used in the treatment of immunemediated rheumatic diseases. These drugs target different pro-inflammatory cytokines including tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1 and interleukin-6, or immune effector cells including B and T lymphocytes. Their use has been then extended to different forms of uveitis resistant to standard therapy in small uncontrolled trials, with general and unexpected efficacy. The present review analyzes the literature on treatment of uveitis with the biologics currently available for the treatment of inflammatory rheumatic diseases. We used PubMed search engine as the main source of information. Among the papers included in the reference list, a particular emphasis was given on articles published during the last 5 years.