Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Professor John IsaacsORCiD
Anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (anti-TNF) biologic therapy is a widely used treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It is unknown why some RA patients fail to respond adequately to anti-TNF therapy, which limits the development of clinical biomarkers to predict response or new drugs to target refractory cases. To understand the biological basis of response to anti-TNF therapy, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis of more than 2 million common variants in 2,706 RA patients from 13 different collections. Patients were treated with one of three anti-TNF medications: etanercept (n = 733), infliximab (n = 894), or adalimumab (n = 1,071). We identified a SNP (rs6427528) at the 1q23 locus that was associated with change in disease activity score (Delta DAS) in the etanercept subset of patients (P = 8x10(-8)), but not in the infliximab or adalimumab subsets (P>0.05). The SNP is predicted to disrupt transcription factor binding site motifs in the 3' UTR of an immune-related gene, CD84, and the allele associated with better response to etanercept was associated with higher CD84 gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (P = 1x10(-11) in 228 non-RA patients and P = 0.004 in 132 RA patients). Consistent with the genetic findings, higher CD84 gene expression correlated with lower cross-sectional DAS (P = 0.02, n = 210) and showed a non-significant trend for better DDAS in a subset of RA patients with gene expression data (n= 31, etanercept-treated). A small, multi-ethnic replication showed a non-significant trend towards an association among etanercept-treated RA Abstract patients of Portuguese ancestry (n = 139, P = 0.4), but no association among patients of Japanese ancestry (n = 151, P = 0.8). Our study demonstrates that an allele associated with response to etanercept therapy is also associated with CD84 gene expression, and further that CD84 expression correlates with disease activity. These findings support a model in which CD84 genotypes and/or expression may serve as a useful biomarker for response to etanercept treatment in RA patients of European ancestry.
Author(s): Cui J, Stahl EA, Saevarsdottir S, Miceli C, Diogo D, Trynka G, Raj T, Mirkov MU, Canhao H, Ikari K, Terao C, Okada Y, Wedren S, Askling J, Yamanaka H, Momohara S, Taniguchi A, Ohmura K, Matsuda F, Mimori T, Gupta N, Kuchroo M, Morgan AW, Isaacs JD, Wilson AG, Hyrich KL, Herenius M, Doorenspleet ME, Tak PP, Crusius JBA, van der Horst-Bruinsma IE, Wolbink GJ, van Riel PLCM, van de Laar M, Guchelaar HJ, Shadick NA, Allaart CF, Huizinga TWJ, Toes REM, Kimberly RP, Bridges SL, Criswell LA, Moreland LW, Fonseca JE, de Vries N, Stranger BE, De Jager PL, Raychaudhuri S, Weinblatt ME, Gregersen PK, Mariette X, Barton A, Padyukov L, Coenen MJH, Karlson EW, Plenge RM
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: PLoS Genetics
Year: 2013
Volume: 9
Issue: 3
Online publication date: 28/03/2013
Acceptance date: 13/01/2013
Date deposited: 29/10/2014
ISSN (electronic): 1553-7404
Publisher: Public Library of Science
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003394
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1003394
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
