S-adenosylmethionine therapy in rheumatic and related autoimmune diseases

Abstract

S-adenosylmethionine has been used to treat neuropsychiatric diseases, including those accompanied with depression. These entities often are comorbid with rheumatic and thyroid pathology, and in the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic periods, there was a growing number of such cases. That’s why the article evaluates the experience and perspectives of S-adenosylmethionine therapy in osteoarthritis and a few rheumatic and comorbid thyroid diseases (fibromyalgia, systemic sclerosis, gout and autoimmune thyroiditis). PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, elibrary.ru and Scielo databases were searched for targeted topic between 1966 and 2023. 15 articles were depicted to fulfill the inclusion criteria, 13 in Latin and 2 in Cyrillic scripts, including 1,499 patients (1,383 in osteoarthritis and 116 in other rheumatic diseases). The dosage varied from 200 mg to 1,200 mg/day. The follow-up ranged from 3 weeks to 24 months. Almost all studies (13/15) showed at least one benefit after S-adenosylmethionine therapy supplementation, including 2 papers documented positive effect in vitro achieved upon the cells taken from patients. Most side effects were mild, one study showed borderline moderate/severe adverse effects. Only pre-clinical/experimental studies of S-adenosylmethionine therapy effects on thyroid regulation were revealed. S-adenosylmethionine is a promising and safe element of complex therapy for some rheumatic diseases.