It has been demonstrated that early treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients prevents further joint damage and disability, but biomarkers enabling early RA to be distinguished within the undifferentiated arthritis (UA) cohort are still being sought.
The aim of the research was to study the pathomechanism of initiation and progression of UA→RA and to find such new predictive biomarkers on the basis of functional studies of the immune system.
55 patients with UA were enrolled into the study and followed up for 2 years. The dynamic parameters of proliferation of the peripheral blood CD4+ T cells were recorded at the UA stage. During the follow-up study, standard diagnostic procedures were performed to make the final diagnosis. Comparison of the CD4+ T cell proliferation parameters in the UA-RA and UA-non-RA patients was conducted after the final diagnosis was established.
Our studies showed that the G0-G1 transition time, the cell cycle duration, the number of cell divisions per dividing CD4+ cells and the percentage of dividing CD4+ T cells differed significantly between UA-RA and UA-non-RA patients. Moreover, these proliferation parameters achieved higher specificity and sensitivity in the detection of early RA within UA patients compared to the routine serological tests available.
The proliferation parameters of CD4+ T cells reflect central pathophysiological changes in RA and can be used as new biomarkers for early RA diagnosis, which would enable the international rheumatology recommendation to be achieved concerning the early diagnosis and treatment of RA patients.