Circulating IFN-γ producing CD4+ T cells and IL-17A producing CD4+ T cells, HLA-shared epitope and ACPA may characterize the clinical response to therapy in rheumatoid arthritis patients

• Published in: Human immunology 2020-05, Vol.81 (5), p.228-236
• Main Authors: Alvandpur, Niloofar, Tabatabaei, Raheleh, Tahamoli-Roudsari, Ahmad, Basiri, Zahra, Behzad, Mahdi, Rezaeepoor, Mahsa, Roshanaei, Ghodratollah, Hajilooi, Mehrdad, Solgi, Ghasem
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ACPA; Adult; Alleles; Anti-Citrullinated Protein Antibodies - blood; Anti-Citrullinated Protein Antibodies - immunology; Antirheumatic Agents - therapeutic use; Arthritis, Rheumatoid - blood; Arthritis, Rheumatoid - drug therapy; Arthritis, Rheumatoid - immunology; Case-Control Studies; CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes - immunology; Cells, Cultured; Epitopes - immunology; Female; Helper T cells; HLA-DRB1 Chains - genetics; HLA-SE; Humans; Interferon-gamma - metabolism; Interleukin-17 - metabolism; Male; Middle Aged; Monitoring, Immunologic - methods; Prospective Studies; Rheumatoid arthritis; Treatment Outcome
• ISSN: 0198-8859; 1879-1166
• DOI: 10.1016/j.humimm.2020.02.008

This study analyzed the association between peripheral distributions of helper T cell subsets, HLA shared-epitope (SE), anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (ACPA) and clinical response to therapy in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Frequencies of IFN-γ-producing CD4+T (Th1) and IL-17A-producing CD4+T (Th17) cells were determined by flow cytometry in 167 patients (114 cases with good-response (GR) and 53 poor-response (PR) based on DAS28). HLA-DRB1 alleles for patients and 150 healthy controls were determined by PCR-SSP. We observed that 65.2% of RA patients were SE+, 63.4%ACPA+, 43.7%SE+ACPA+ and 14.9% were SE−ACPA−. Higher significantly proportions of Th1 and Th17 cells were found in RA patients than controls (P