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An animated, cited guide for students and patients. Educational only, not medical advice. Your place is saved on this device.

Not medical adviceFMF Companion is an educational synthesis of published literature for study and patient understanding. It does not replace a clinician. Doses and guideline statements are reported as published, not as instructions for any individual.

Part 2 · Colchicine

Colchicine inside the cell

Colchicine comes from the autumn crocus and has been the backbone of FMF treatment since the 1970s. Follow one dose from the mouth to the inside of a neutrophil, where it takes apart the cell's microtubule scaffolding. Four scenes, one timeline.

Schematic, not to scale.

Related guide: colchicine is also a first-line treatment for gout flares, where it damps the NLRP3 inflammasome that urate crystals switch on. The Gout Companion follows the same dose into a neutrophil facing a urate crystal.

How sure are we about the mechanism?

FMF Companion is an educational synthesis of the published literature on Familial Mediterranean Fever, made for a health-science course and for patient understanding.

It is not medical advice. It cannot diagnose, and nothing here should change a treatment without your own clinician. Guideline doses are quoted as published. Please check the original sources, which are listed in full in the Sources module.

Part of Medical Companions, animated and cited guides to one disease each. Also there: Alzheimer's Companion, and the Gout Companion, a related guide that also covers colchicine and the IL-1 inflammasome.