Key clinical point: Positive correlations between circulating inflammatory cytokines and coinhibitory checkpoint molecules modulated by anticitrullinated peptide antibodies (ACPA) or joint damage stage existed in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Major finding: Serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor- a (TNF-α) were positively associated with RA disease activity and galectin-9, independent of ACPA titers (all P < .05) and with soluble T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin-domain containing-3 in patients with ACPA <200 U/mL ( P < .05). Galectin-9 was positively correlated with IL-6 ( P = .005) only in patients without advanced joint damage and with TNF- a ( P = .001) and IL-6 ( P = .02) in patients with advanced joint damage.
Study details: This retrospective analysis included 132 patients with RA.
Disclosures: The work was funded by the Japan Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research. K Migita received grants from Chugai, Pfizer, and AbbVie. Other authors declared no conflict of interests.
Source: Matsumoto H et al. PLoS One. 2021;16(11):e0260254 (Nov 18). Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260254.