Antigenic variant peptide – to realize the “cure” of rheumatoid arthritis. The team continues to explore the molecular pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis and conducts research on peptide immunotherapy around the core of the trimolecular complex – the antigenic peptide. The team’s main work is to explore how to provide specific treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. Since this research is the first time in the world to target rheumatoid arthritis-causing antigens for immune intervention, it is original and cutting-edge, and soon received funding from the National Outstanding Young Scientists Foundation of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China for key projects. In addition, the team has received support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China for many years and national projects such as “863”. The team focuses on the initiation of rheumatoid arthritis, hoping to specifically inhibit the initiation of the pathogenic antigens in the pathogenesis of the disease and target the abnormal immune response, in order to achieve better efficacy and reduce adverse effects. The team synthesized antigenic variant peptides by artificial modification to address the structural characteristics of antigenic peptides. The results of cellular, animal and patient extracts showed that the antigen-modifying peptide could competitively inhibit the mutual recognition of rheumatoid arthritis antigenic peptide and specific T cells, and prevent the downstream autoimmune response, thus inhibiting and reducing the immune and inflammatory damage of rheumatoid arthritis. This novel peptide can also interfere with the binding of multiple antigens structurally similar to the major pathogenic antigen to immune cells, preventing the pathogenic effects of multiple rheumatoid arthritis target antigens. Compared with the currently used NSAIDs and immunosuppressive drugs, this non-antigenic variant peptide inhibits the pathological process of rheumatoid arthritis by inhibiting the activation of immune cells by pathogenic antigens, significantly inhibits the bone destruction caused by arthritis, and reduces the pathogenic molecules in the serum, thus achieving a “cure”. “The research results have been published in the journal Rheumatology and Rheumatology. The research results have received wide attention from the rheumatology and immunology community, and the second prize of the 2007 Chinese Medical Science and Technology Award is a full recognition of this achievement. The group has published nearly 100 related papers, among which more than 30 have been published in top English journals indexed by SCI, and the whole research has also trained more than 20 Ph. Zhanguo Li has been invited to give presentations at international academic conferences for many times. Due to the cutting-edge and originality of the research, the results have also received national and international patents. It is noteworthy that, except for some basic and mechanistic studies that were done in the U.S., the main follow-up studies are original and completely done in China, and all the results have independent intellectual property rights. The success of the project is also inseparable from the strong support from NSF and the close cooperation of the whole team. Dr. Li Ru, the main participant of the group, believes that the idea of treating rheumatoid arthritis with antigenic variant peptides at the beginning of the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis is also enlightening for other immune-related diseases. For example, there is no effective treatment for diseases such as multiple sclerosis, but antigenic variant peptides may have a good effect on it.