Project description:Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by synovitis and/or joint deterioration. Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is one of extra-articular manifestations of RA characterized by inflammation and/or fibrosis. Clinically relevant rheumatoid arthritis-related interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD) occurs in 10% of RA patients and is associated with poor prognosis. Although a poor prognosis has been reported, little is known about RA-ILD. Here, we report the first detailed transcriptomic analysis of the epithelial and immune cell populations in RA-ILD lungs at the single-cell level.
Project description:RNA was isolated from 200μl plasma samples and cDNA was synthesized. Real-time RT-PCR analysis was performed to evaluate miRNA expression in the plasma pool from 17 RA patients with RA-ILD or the plasma pool from 17 RA patients without ILD using Human miRNome microRNA PCR Panel I+II (Exiqon).
Project description:Interstitial lung disease (ILD) poses a serious threat in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, the impact of cornerstone drugs, including methotrexate (MTX) and TNF blockade, on RA-associated ILD (RA-ILD) remains controversial. Our study using an SKG mouse model and single-cell transcriptomics revealed that MTX exacerbates pulmonary inflammation by promoting immune cell infiltration, Th17 activation, and fibrosis. In contrast, TNF blockade ameliorates these features and inhibits ILD progression. Analysis of data from a human RA-ILD cohort revealed that patients with ILD progression had persistently higher systemic inflammation than those without progression, particularly among the subgroup undergoing MTX treatment. These findings highlight the need for personalized therapeutic approaches in RA-ILD, given the divergent outcomes of MTX and TNF blockade.
Project description:To identify susceptibility genes concerning copy number variations (CNVs) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a case-control genome-wide CNV analyses was carried out by Roche Nimblegen array-based CGH. In this study, 15 RA patients and 1 control (Non-RA) were included.
Project description:Lung disease is the most overrepresented cause of death in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Animal studies have demonstrated potentiated autoimmunity, arthritis, and profibrotic/inflammatory lung disease with a combination of airborne exposures and collagen-induced arthritis (CIA), a model that recapitulates features of RA-associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD). As patients with RA-ILD demonstrate unique circulating monocyte subpopulations, this study aims to characterize lung infiltrating monocytes/macrophages in a mouse model of RA-ILD and determine whether reducing these cells mitigates the development of lung disease. Autoimmune-prone DBA/1J mice received intranasal inhalation of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) daily for up to 5 weeks and CIA induction. Experimental groups included Sham (saline injection/saline inhalation), CIA (CIA/saline), LPS (saline/LPS), and CIA+LPS (CIA/LPS). Lung disease was assessed by longitudinal imaging, lung function measurements, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, lung tissues, and lung histopathology. Cell subpopulations were analyzed by single cell RNA-sequencing. Unsupervised clustering revealed 16 discrete clusters among the experimental groups with 2 robust clusters characterized as infiltrating inflammatory monocytes/macrophages for both CIA+LPS and CIA. The interaction of inhalation-induced airway inflammation and autoimmune arthritis results in lung disease associated with uniquely activated infiltrating inflammatory monocytes-macrophages that mediate adverse lung consequences. Whereas the induced monocyte/Mɸ immunophenotype is more aligned to CIA than endotoxin exposure, co-exposure modeling renders unique features that potentially inform the pathogenesis and treatment of RA-ILD.