Rheumatology
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Observational Study
Effect of rituximab on the progression of rheumatoid arthritis-related interstitial lung disease: 10 years' experience at a single centre.
To evaluate the effect of rituximab (RTX) in patients with RA-related interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD) and identify factors associated with outcome after treatment. ⋯ In this cohort of patients where RTX was given for arthritis, most patients with ILD pre-RTX remained stable/improved after treatment over a prolonged follow-up period. Patients who deteriorated/died had the most severe ILD pre-RTX, suggesting the drug was not contributory. RTX appears to be an acceptable therapeutic choice for patients with RA-ILD and further studies are warranted.
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Multicenter Study
Rheumatoid arthritis-specific cardiovascular risk scores are not superior to general risk scores: a validation analysis of patients from seven countries.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk calculators developed for the general population do not accurately predict CVD events in patients with RA. We sought to externally validate risk calculators recommended for use in patients with RA including the EULAR 1.5 multiplier, the Expanded Cardiovascular Risk Prediction Score for RA (ERS-RA) and QRISK2. ⋯ The QRISK2, EULAR multiplier and ERS-RA algorithms did not predict CVD risk more accurately in patients with RA than CVD risk calculators developed for the general population.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A multi-biomarker score measuring disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis patients tapering adalimumab or etanercept: predictive value for clinical and radiographic outcomes.
The aim was to evaluate the predictive value of the baseline multi-biomarker disease activity (MBDA) score in long-standing RA patients with low disease activity tapering TNF inhibitors (TNFi) for successful tapering or discontinuation, occurrence of flare and major flare, and radiographic progression. ⋯ In this disease activity-guided strategy study of TNFi tapering in RA patients with low disease activity, baseline MBDA score was not predictive for successful tapering, discontinuation, flare, major flare or radiographic progression in patients who tapered TNFi.
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Nicotine drives neutrophil extracellular traps formation and accelerates collagen-induced arthritis.
The aim was to investigate the effects of nicotine on neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) formation in current and non-smokers and on a murine model of RA. ⋯ We demonstrate that nicotine is a potent inducer of NETosis, which may play an important role in accelerating arthritis in the CIA model. This study generates awareness of and the mechanisms by which nicotine-containing products, including e-cigarettes, may have deleterious effects on patients with RA.
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Omics studies of systemic autoimmune diseases (SADs) in general, and SLE in particular, have delivered isolated information from transcriptome, epigenome, genome, cytokine and metabolome analyses. Such analyses have resulted in the identification of disease susceptibility genes and the description of IFN expression signatures, allowing extensive insight into the mechanisms of disease and the development of new therapies. ⋯ The use of omic information allows the discovery of correlative patterns involving drugs not currently suspected to be of value in SADs. In this review, we summarize the omics findings for SLE and propose ways of using the data for the identification of new biomarkers, finding new drugs and reclassifying patients not only with SLE, but also with other SADs.