Found last Week on the Internet, part 1: Up-to-date Articles on Autoimmunity and Autoimmune Diseases
Duroux-Richard I, Jorgensen C, Apparailly F. miRNAs and rheumatoid arthritis – promising novel biomarkers. Swiss Med Wkly. 2011 Mar 18;141:w13175 – doi: 10.4414/smw.2011.13175 – Free full text available! – Today, the most challenging issue in the field of rheumatoid arthritis is the identification of biomarkers for early disease diagnosis and for prediction drug response. micro(mi)-RNAs certainly represent an realistic option for optimal diagnosis an disease treatment.
Roux CH, Breuil V, Valerio L, Amoretti N, Brocq O, Albert C, Grisot C, Allam Y, Chevalier P, Pradier C, Euller-Ziegler L. Etanercept Compared to Intraarticular Corticosteroid Injection in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Double-blind, Randomized Pilot Study. J Rheumatol. 2011 Mar 16. [Epub ahead of print]. – Patients with rheumatoid arthritis who had persistent monoarthritis received etanercept or intraarticular corticosteroid injections. Half a year later there was no significant difference in outcome between the two groups.
Klareskog L, Malmström V, Lundberg K, Padyukov L, Alfredsson L. Smoking, citrullination and genetic variability in the immunopathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. Semin Immunol. 2011 Mar 2. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 21376627. – This review describes how studies on interactions between genetic variants, and environmental factors, mainly smoking, contribute to the understanding of how autoimmunity to post-translationally (citrullinated) proteins/peptides may occur and potentially contribute to certain subsets of rheumatoid arthritis.
Furst DE, Keystone EC, Braun J, Breedveld FC, Burmester GR, De Benedetti F, Dörner T, Emery P, Fleischmann R, Gibofsky A, Kalden JR, Kavanaugh A, Kirkham B, Mease P, Sieper J, Singer NG, Smolen JS, Van Riel PL, Weisman MH, Winthrop K. Updated consensus statement on biological agents for the treatment of rheumatic diseases, 2010. Ann Rheum Dis. 2011 Mar;70 Suppl 1:i2-36. PubMed PMID: 21339216
El-Barbary AM, Kassem EM, El-Sergany MA, Essa SA, Eltomey MA. Association of Anti-Modified Citrullinated Vimentin with Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Compared with Anti-Cyclic Citrullinated Peptide. J Rheumatol. 2011 Mar 1. [Epub ahead of print] – For diagnosing early rheumatoid arthritis detection of anti-MCV (anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin) is as sensitive as anti-CCP. Additionally, the anti-MCV assay appears to be a useful test for monitoring associated subclinical atherosclerosis in case of early rheumatoid arthritis, the findings of this clinical study from the Tanta-Univerity Faculty of Medicine, Gharbeia, Egypt, found.
Besada E, Nikolaisen C, Nossent H. Diagnostic value of antibodies against mutated citrullinated vimentin for rheumatoid arthritis. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2011 Jan-Feb;29(1):85-8. Epub 2011 Feb 23. PubMed PMID: 21269572. – The authors from University Hospital North Norway in Tromsø compared the diagnostic efficiency of anti-MCV assay, anti-CCP2 tests and RF detection for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) diagnostics. According to their findings in this cross-sectional study with 144 patients with established rheumatid diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, connective tissue disease) the anti-MCV test system “could be a better test for diagnosing RA than anti-CCP2”.
Klareskog L, Gregersen PK, Huizinga TW. Prevention of autoimmune rheumatic disease: state of the art and future perspectives. Ann Rheum Dis. 2010 Dec;69(12):2062-6. Review. PubMed PMID: 21097657. – This review article discusses the new avenues for individualised and biology-based prevention of autoimmune diseases. The authors describe today’s understanding of how genes, environment and immunity interact and they describe how prevention can be improved.
You can also view my article collection on PubMed, where you’ll find links to the articles’ abstracts: View my collection, “Found on the Internet, part 1” from NCIB.
Author of this article: Tobias Stolzenberg
