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  1. Hydroxychloroquine, a 4-aminoquinoline DMARD, is used as a remission inducing agent in rheumatoid arthritis.
  2. Hydroxychloroquine is less toxic than chloroquine and produces a lower incidence of retinal damage than chloroquine.
  3. Sulfasalazine, a sulfa drug of DMARD class, is used in diseases like ulcerative colitis and rheumatoid arthritis.
  4. Disease modifying antirheumatic drugs are indicated in rheumatoid arthritis along with NSAIDs in patients with progressive disease.
  5. The beneficial effect of DMARDs is manifest only after 1-3 months of therapy.
  6. Prednisolone is an anti-rheumatic drug that affords symptomatic relief but does not bring about remission in rheumatoid arthritis.
  7. Leflunomide is a disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug whose active metabolite inhibits the enzyme dihydro-orotate dehydrogenase (DHODH).
  8. Sulfasalazine, a DMARD, is made up of two components, mesalazine (5-aminosalicyclic acid or 5-ASA) and a sulfa antibiotic, called sulfapyridine. 
  9. Around 90% of the dose of sulfasalazine reaches the colon, where most of it is metabolized by bacteria into sulfapyridine and mesalazine (also known as 5-aminosalicylic acid). Both metabolites are active; most of the sulfapyridine is absorbed and then further metabolized, but most mesalazine is not, and remains in the colon.
  10. Sulfapyridine component of sulfasalazine is responsible for the therapeutic effect in rheumatoid arthritis while 5-ASA component of sulfasalazine is responsible for the therapeutic effect in ulcerative colitis.