Project description:Some autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), are preceded by a critical subclinical phase of disease activity. Proactive clinical management is hampered by a lack of biological understanding of this subclinical 'at-risk' state and the changes underlying disease development. In a cross-sectional and longitudinal multi-omics study of peripheral immunity in the autoantibody-positive at-risk for RA period, we identified systemic inflammation, proinflammatory-skewed B cells, expanded Tfh17-like cells, epigenetic bias in naive T cells, TNF+IL1B+ monocytes resembling a synovial macrophage population, and CD4 T cell transcriptional features resembling those suppressed by abatacept (CTLA4-Ig) in RA patients. Our findings characterize pathogenesis prior to clinical diagnosis and suggest the at-risk state exhibits substantial immune alterations that could potentially be targeted for early intervention to delay or prevent autoimmunity. We provide a suite of tools at https://apps.allenimmunology.org/aifi/insights/ra-progression/ to facilitate exploration and enhance accessibility of this extensive dataset.
Project description:Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by chronic destructive arthritis. Although helper T cells are involved in the pathogenesis of RA, the characteristics of synovium-infiltrating CD4+ T cells are still largely unknown. In this study, we investigated synovium-infiltrating helper T cells of rheumatoid arthritis patients
Project description:Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, inflammatory joint disease of unknown etiology and pronounced inter-patient heterogeneity. To characterize RA at the molecular level and to uncover key pathomechanisms, we performed whole-genome gene expression analyses. Synovial tissues from rheumatoid arthritis patients were compared to those from osteoarthritis patients and to normal donors. Keywords: disease state analysis
Project description:The study aimed to identify proteins associated with rheumatoid arthritis. Dysregulated proteins were linked to inflammation, immune response and oxidative stress.
Project description:This study investigated the systemic effects of 0.1 THz irradiation on the inflammatory status of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mouse model. It was found that THz irradiation apparently alleviated the symptoms of arthritis in CIA mice, reducing the joint swelling, mitigating the tissue damage and relieving the expression of pro-inflammatory factors (TNF-, IL-6, RANKL and MMPs) in the swollen joint of the CIA mice. Moreover, the reduction of serum inflammatory cytokines levels together with the reduced CD4+ T cell count and the recovered percentage of regulatory T cells (Treg) indicated that THz irradiation exerted a systemic immunoregulatory activity in CIA mice. The blood leukocyte mRNA-seq GO analysis also enriched several biological processes including the differentiation and adhesion of leukocytes, lymphocyte differentiation and T cell activation, providing additional supporting evidence for the immunoregulatory effects of THz.
Project description:Genome-wide DNA methylation level was studied to determine whether Rheumatoid arthritis patients (cases) has methylation differences comparing to normal controls in PBLs. We used Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip array to determine the genome-wide DNA methylation difference in PBLs from Rheumatoid arthritis patients (cases) and normal controls Bisulphite converted DNA from the Rheumatoid arthritis patients (cases) and normal controls were hybridized to the Illumina Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip arrays
Project description:Neutrophil Extracellular Traps (NETs) are chromatin-derived extracellular structures that are expelled from neutrophils in response to infectious or inflammatory stimuli. NET DNA structures are decorated with proteins including histones, myeloperoxidase and neutrophil elastase. NETs are implicated in the development of auto-immunity in diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) through the externalisation of intracellular neoepitopes e.g. dsDNA and nuclear proteins in SLE and citrullinated peptides in RA. The aim of this work was to use quantitative proteomics to identify and measure NET proteins produced by neutrophils from healthy individuals, and from patients with RA and SLE.
Project description:Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a chronic and systemic disease of unknown etiology, is characterized by hyperplasia of synovial cells, which ultimately lead to the destruction of cartilage and bone. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms that lead to RA, we analyzed synovial cells established from patient with RA by oligonucleotide microarrays. Gene expression profiles reveal a novel pathophysiologic function of RA synovial cells as a generator of oxidative stress, and a self-defense mechanism against self-generated oxidative stress. Experiment Overall Design: We isolated synovial cell culture from patients with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. Fibroblast from patient with osteoarthritis was used for the reference.