Arthritis & Rheumatism, Volume 63,
November 2011 Abstract Supplement
Abstracts of the American College of
Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals
Annual Scientific Meeting
Chicago, Illinois November 4-9, 2011.
Identification of Activated Cytokine Pathways in the Blood of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Myositis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Scleroderma Patients.
Higgs1, Brandon W., Zhu1, Wei, Richman1, Laura, Fiorentino2, David, Greenberg3, Steven A., Jallal1, Bahija, Yao1, Yihong
MedImmune, Gaithersburg, MD
Stanford, Stanford, CA
Brigham Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Background/Purpose:
To develop genomic signatures of seven cytokines involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatic diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), dermatomyositis (DM), polymyositis (PM), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), or systemic sclerosis (SSc) that could potentially help to identify patients likely to benefit from therapies that target these individual cytokines.
Methods:
Over-expressed transcripts in the whole blood (WB) were identified from 262 SLE, 44 DM, 33 PM, 38 SSc and 89 RA subjects and compared to 24 healthy subjects using Affymetrix arrays. Cytokine-inducible gene signatures such as type I IFN, TNF-a, IL1b, IL-10, IL-13, IL-17, and GM-CSF were assessed in the WB of these subjects to identify subpopulations showing activation of specific cytokine pathways.
Results:
Significant activation of the type I IFN pathway in a population of 5 diseases studied was universally observed. The TNF-a and IL-1b pathways were activated in subgroups of PM and RA subjects, respectively, with another subgroup of RA subjects showing activation of the IL-13 pathway. The GM-CSF pathway was activated in a subgroup of SSc subjects and the IL-17 pathway was activated in subgroups of all diseases except SLE.
Conclusion:
A novel gene expression measurement of activated cytokines in five different rheumatic diseases is presented. Characterizing the cytokine pathways most activated in specific patient subpopulations has the potential to help to target the appropriate patient populations for corresponding anti-cytokine therapies.
To cite this abstract, please use the following information:
Higgs, Brandon W., Zhu, Wei, Richman, Laura, Fiorentino, David, Greenberg, Steven A., Jallal, Bahija, et al; Identification of Activated Cytokine Pathways in the Blood of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Myositis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Scleroderma Patients. [abstract]. Arthritis Rheum 2011;63 Suppl 10 :1834
DOI:
