Four new biomarkers have been identified that can help in the early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the European League Against Rheumatism (Madrid; June 12-15). The findings may improve RA diagnosis, particularly among the one-third of patients who test negative for current diagnostic markers–rheumatoid factor (RF) and antibodies directed against cyclic citrullinated peptides (ACCP). The researchers utilized enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay antibody reactivity testing to assess four candidate biomarkers (UH-RA.1, UH-RA.9, UH-RA.14, and UH-RA.21) in 127 RA patients, 97 healthy controls, and 87 patients with other rheumatic conditions. Additional testing was performed in a validation cohort of 166 RA patients. The study population included 52 early RA patients. Of the total sample of 293 RA patients, 24 percent could not be identified using the current diagnostic biomarkers RF and ACCP. But the four candidate biomarkers identified RA in 26 percent of the RF-negative, ACCP-negative population, thereby reducing the serological gap from 24 percent to 17 percent. Of the 69 seronegative RA patients, UH-RA.1 identified 7 percent and UH-RA.21 identified 17 percent. Combining all four markers into one panel achieved a sensitivity of 30 percent and a specificity of 83 percent for […]
Four new biomarkers have been identified that can help in the early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the European League Against Rheumatism (Madrid; June 12-15). The findings may improve RA diagnosis, particularly among the one-third of patients who test negative for current diagnostic markers–rheumatoid factor (RF) and antibodies directed against cyclic citrullinated peptides (ACCP).
The researchers utilized enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay antibody reactivity testing to assess four candidate biomarkers (UH-RA.1, UH-RA.9, UH-RA.14, and UH-RA.21) in 127 RA patients, 97 healthy controls, and 87 patients with other rheumatic conditions. Additional testing was performed in a validation cohort of 166 RA patients. The study population included 52 early RA patients.
Of the total sample of 293 RA patients, 24 percent could not be identified using the current diagnostic biomarkers RF and ACCP. But the four candidate biomarkers identified RA in 26 percent of the RF-negative, ACCP-negative population, thereby reducing the serological gap from 24 percent to 17 percent. Of the 69 seronegative RA patients, UH-RA.1 identified 7 percent and UH-RA.21 identified 17 percent. Combining all four markers into one panel achieved a sensitivity of 30 percent and a specificity of 83 percent for RA. These biomarkers were present in early disease stages, with 37 percent of the early RA patients testing positive—12 percent were positive for UH-RA.1 and 27 percent were positive for UH-RA.21.
“The detection of antibody reactivity against our candidate biomarkers in 37 percent of early and 26 percent of seronegative RA patients implies that these biomarkers can be of additional value to the current diagnostic biomarkers for RA, with most promising results for UH-RA.1 and UH-RA.21,” wrote lead author Liesbeth M. De Winter, a Ph.D. student at Hasselt University in Belgium. “Significant associations with inflammatory factors and disease activity indicate an important prognostic potential as well.”
