Emerging aspects of molecular biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment response in rheumatoid arthritis

ABSTRACT

Important advances have occurred during the last decade in the understanding of the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, we are still far from having a clear picture of the molecular network that predisposes an individual to develop the disease, to worsen the symptoms after that, or to successfully respond to a specific treatment. In this sense, different –omics fields (including transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, genomics and epigenomics) have recently produced promising insights that could definitively help us to sharpen such picture if integrated trough a systems biology approach. In this review we will summarise and discuss the recent progress achieved in those fields and its possible impact on the discovery of suitable biomarkers for RA diagnosis, prognosis and treatment response.

KEYWORDS:

• Rheumatoid arthritis
• biomarkers
• transcriptomics
• proteomics
• metabolomics
• genomics
• epigenomics

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Additional information

Funding

The authors were supported by the following grants: SAF2012-34435 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, P12-BIO-1395 from Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Tecnología, Junta de Andalucía (Spain), the European IMI BTCure Program, the Cooperative Research Thematic Network (RETICS) program, RD12/0009/0004 (RIER), from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII, Health Ministry, Madrid, Spain) and the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking under grant agreement n°115565, resources of which are composed of financial contribution from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) and EFPIA companies’ in kind contribution. AM is recipient of a ‘Rio Hortega’ fellowship (CM13/00314) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII, Health Ministry, Madrid, Spain). FDC is recipient of a ‘Ramón y Cajal’ fellowship (RYC-2014-16458) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.