Clinical biomarkers and pathogenic-related cytokines in rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common autoimmune disease with unknown etiology and pathogenesis. Although major therapeutic advances have been made in recent years, there is no cure for the disease. Current medications mainly reduce inflammation in order to relieve pain and slow joint damage, but many have potentially serious side effects. Therefore, to find specific biomarkers will benefit both RA patients to find relief from the disease and physicians to monitor the disease development. A number of biomarkers have been discovered and used clinically, and others are still under investigation. The autoantibodies, which are widely used in diagnosis and prognosis, novel biomarkers, which reflect clinical disease activity, and newly found biomarkers and pathogenic-related cytokines are discussed in this review.

Figure 1

Network of investigational and prospective biomarkers in RA. A variety of different cell populations, including adaptive immune cells, innate immune cells, fibroblast-like synoviocytes, and endothelial cells, secrete cytokines as biomarkers not only in serum but also in synovial fluid and orchestrate inflammation and bone destruction in RA patients.