Publication Date
2016
Journal Title
Ann Rheum Dis
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Studies suggest that circulating type I interferon (IFN) may predict response to biological agents in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Prediction of response prior to initiating therapy would represent a major advancement. METHODS: We studied sera from a test set of 32 patients with RA from the Auto-immune Biomarkers Collaborative Network Consortium and a validation set of 92 patients with RA from the Treatment Efficacy and Toxicity in Rheumatoid Arthritis Database and Repository registry. The test set included those with good response or no response to tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors at 14 weeks by European League Against Rheumatism criteria. The validation set included subjects with good, moderate or no response at 12 weeks. Total serum type I IFN activity, IFN-alpha and IFN-beta activity were measured using a functional reporter cell assay. RESULTS: In the test set, an increased ratio of IFN-beta to IFN-alpha (IFN-beta/alpha activity ratio) in pretreatment serum associated with lack of response to TNF inhibition (p=0.013). Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody titre and class of TNF inhibitor did not influence this relationship. A receiver-operator curve supported a ratio of 1.3 as the optimal cut-off. In the validation set, subjects with an IFN-beta/alpha activity ratio >1.3 were significantly more likely to have non-response than good response (OR=6.67, p=0.018). The test had 77% specificity and 45% sensitivity for prediction of non-response compared with moderate or good response. Meta-analysis of test and validation sets confirmed strong predictive capacity of IFN-beta/alpha activity ratio (p=0.005). CONCLUSIONS: Increased pretreatment serum IFN-beta/alpha ratio strongly associated with non-response to TNF inhibition. This study supports further investigation of serum type I IFN in predicting outcome of TNF inhibition in RA.
Volume Number
75
Issue Number
10
Pages
1757-62
Document Type
Article
EPub Date
2015/11/08
Status
Faculty, Northwell Researcher
Facility
School of Medicine; Northwell Health
Primary Department
Molecular Medicine
Additional Departments
Rheumatology; General Internal Medicine
PMID
DOI
10.1136/annrheumdis-2015-208001