New Research Finds If Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Respond to Treatment

Potential novel biomarkers helps in predicting the patient responsiveness to disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), according to the team of researchers at Queen Mary University of London.

New biomarkers from essential fatty acids in patients blood help predict patient responsiveness to DMARDs.

The new study, published in the science journal Nature Communications, demonstrates that by measuring levels of certain small molecules produced from essential fatty acids in a patient's blood that are involved in regulating inflammation (known as 'specialized pro-resolving mediators'), predictions can be made about an individual's ability to respond to these drugs.

‘Protective molecules measured through mass spectrometry-based methodologies coupled with artificial intelligence helps identify molecules that can predict responses to treatment.’
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Lead author Professor Jesmond Dalli from Queen Mary University of London said: "Currently a large proportion of patients with RA are unresponsive to DMARDs and are therefore unnecessarily exposed to their side effects.

In addition, it can currently take up to six months from treatment initiation to determine whether someone will or will not respond to these medicines. For the patients who do not respond to the treatment, the disease gets worse before they are able to find a treatment that is more likely to work for them.

"The research was conducted using blood from healthy RA patients who were both responsive and unresponsive to treatment. The blood was collected before treatment initiation or six months after treatment commenced.

Guidelines For DMARDs And Biologic Drugs Usage In Treating Rheumatoid Arthritis Updated by ACR
ACR released the 2012 recommendations for the use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and biologic agents in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

We then measured the levels of protective molecules using mass spectrometry-based methodologies that were coupled with artificial intelligence methodologies to identify molecules that can predict responses to treatment."

The paper recommends that the blood levels of the mediator group identified in the study should be measured to predict the responsiveness RA patients to DMARD treatment.

The team plan to conduct a larger study to evaluate if these initial findings can be applied to a bigger patient group.

Source-Eurekalert