Session Information
Session Type: Poster Session C
Session Time: 1:00PM-3:00PM
Background/Purpose: Biologic (b-) and targeted synthetic (ts-) disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) have brought significant progress in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but a significant proportion of RA patients still remain symptomatic despite treatment according to current recommendations. These patients have recently been defined as “difficult-to-treat (D2T)” RA. There is evidence that miRNA expression may play a role in the diagnosis and therapy of RA.
Methods: A total of 36 patients fulfilling the EULAR definition of D2T-RA (1) (mean age 59.1±10.7 yrs, 78% females), 36 patients with RA in sustained clinical remission on b-/ts-DMARDs at two consecutive examinations 12 wks apart (mean age 66.3±9.6 yrs, 78% females), and 36 healthy controls (mean age 61.1±7.7 yrs, 68% females) were included in the study. We screened circulating miRNAs using massive parallel sequencing and differential expression was computed by DESeq2.
Results: The massive parallel sequencing approach detected 814 miRNAs. The expression analyses revealed 35 miRNAs with different concentrations in patients who developed D2T-RA compared to patients with RA who achieved sustained remission or healthy controls. Out of these miRNAs, miR-16-5p (1.5x) and miR-451a (2.1x) were downregulated and miR-126-3p (1.4x) was upregulated in D2T RA patients compared to controls. In addition, miR-101-3p (1.5x) was downregulated in D2T RA compared to RA patients. Except for miR-101-3p, these miRNAs have been previously associated with RA and might be associated with the development of D2T disease prior to initiation of b-/ts-DMARD therapy.
Conclusion: We discovered that miR-101-3p could differentiate patients with D2T disease from patients with sustained remission and represent a potential biomarker of D2T disease. However, these data need to be validated in further studies.
Acknowledgements:
This work was supported by the project SVV 260 523, BBMRI-CZ LM2018125, and a project of the MHCR for conceptual research development No. 023728.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Baloun J, Pekčcová A, Mann H, Vencovský J, Pavelka K, Šenolt L. Circulating miRNAs and Difficult-To-Treat Rheumatoid Arthritis: The Screening Study [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2022; 74 (suppl 9). https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/circulating-mirnas-and-difficult-to-treat-rheumatoid-arthritis-the-screening-study/. Accessed .« Back to ACR Convergence 2022
ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/circulating-mirnas-and-difficult-to-treat-rheumatoid-arthritis-the-screening-study/