Scientists are trying to develop a vaccine which could suppress the effects of rheumatoid arthritis using patients' own blood cells.

The treatment involves cells being taken from the patient before being altered and injected back into the affected joint.

The process works like a vaccine and changes human cells to suppress - rather than activate - the immune system.

This would stop the body attacking its own joints, according to the scientists at Newcastle University who are now ready to test the vaccine on an already selected team of volunteers who have the disease.

Professor John Isaacs said that although the work was in a very early, experimental stage it was "hugely exciting" and, if successful, could signal a major breakthrough in treating rheumatoid arthritis.

Although a similar technique has been used in cancer research, this is the first time it has been adapted to rheumatoid arthritis.

The research is being funded by the Arthritis Research Campaign charity.

Rheumatoid arthritis affects more than 350,000 people in the UK and although there is no cure for the disease, new drugs have been developed.

However, these suppress the immune system and leave patients at risk of infections.

If the research is successful, it may be possible to develop new drugs that switch off unwanted immune responses without suppressing protective immunity.

The researchers hope to discover if the vaccine is effective only in the injected joints, or whether it is disseminated throughout the body through the lymph nodes.