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Rheumatoid arthritis in 2022

Progress continues in prediction of the response to treatment of RA

In 2022, advances in the prediction of the response to treatment in rheumatoid arthritis resulted from gene-expression profiling in synovial biopsy samples, assessment of the expression of interferon-response genes in the blood, and the application of machine learning to patients’ clinical parameters and genetic variance.

Key advances

  • Gene expression in synovial biopsies predicts response to rituximab and tocilizumab and treatment-refractory state in rheumatoid arthritis (RA)2.

  • Expression of interferon-response genes in the blood correlates with responsiveness to mixed DMARDs in early RA3.

  • Machine learning applied to genotype data can be used for prediction of the response to methotrexate in early RA4.

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References

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  2. Rivellese, F. et al. Rituximab versus tocilizumab in rheumatoid arthritis: synovial biopsy-based biomarker analysis of the phase 4 R4RA randomized trial. Nat. Med. 28, 1256–1268 (2022).

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Correspondence to Myles J. Lewis or Costantino Pitzalis.

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Competing interests

The authors are named inventors on a patent application (no. GB 2100821.4), submitted by Queen Mary University of London, that covers methods used to select treatments in rheumatoid arthritis.

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Lewis, M.J., Pitzalis, C. Progress continues in prediction of the response to treatment of RA. Nat Rev Rheumatol 19, 68–69 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41584-022-00890-5

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