Interferon activation in primary Sjögren’s syndrome: recent insights and future perspective as novel treatment target

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) is one of the most common systemic autoimmune diseases. At the moment, there is no cure for this disease and its etiopathology is complex. Interferons (IFNs) play an important role in the pathogenesis of this disease and are a potential treatment target.

Areas covered: Here we discuss the role of IFNs in pSS pathogenesis, complications encountered upon studying IFN-induced gene expression, and comment on the current knowledge on easy clinical applicable ‘IFN signatures’. The current treatment options targeting IFNs in pSS are summarized and the perspective of potential new strategies discussed.

Expert commentary: The authors provide their perspective on the role of IFNs in pSS and how this knowledge could be used to improve pSS diagnosis, provide new treatment targets, to monitor clinical trials and to stratify pSS patients in order to move toward precision medicine.

KEYWORDS:

• Primary Sjögren’s syndrome
• interferons
• pathogenesis
• treatment
• stratification
• biomarker

Acknowledgments

The research for this manuscript was (partly) performed within the framework of the Erasmus Postgraduate School Molecular Medicine.

Declaration of interest

MA Versnel has received research funding from Domainex. The authors have no other 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 apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Dutch Arthritis Foundation (Reumafonds) [grant number 14-3-404].