Patent ID: 7175840

Claim:
A method of delaying the progression of one or more rheumatoid arthritis-associated symptoms in a patient having rheumatoid arthritis, wherein said symptoms are selected from the group consisting of: (i) joint swelling, (ii) synovial hyperplasia, (iii) cartilage destruction, and (iv) joint inflammation-associated cytokine level; said method comprising directly injecting into one or more sites of rheumatoid arthritis or sites adjacent thereto within the same limb of the patient a sufficient amount of a composition comprising: (a) a host cell comprising a nucleic acid encoding angiostatin or an anti-angiogenic fragment thereof, wherein said fragment comprises kringle structures 1 through 3 of plasminogen, and wherein said nucleic acid is operably linked to a signal sequence encoding a secretion peptide; and (b) a carrier, wherein said host cell is transformed by a retroviral vector comprising said nucleic acid operably linked to said signal sequence, and wherein said host cell is histocompatible with said patient.