Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by joint damage, and it may present with comorbidities at the systemic level. The Th1/Th2/Th17 CD4
Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of RA patients and healthy donors were exposed to atorvastatin in different concentrations following a cytotoxicity assay. Th1, Th2, and Th17 cytokines profiles were evaluated in the culture supernatant by cytometric bead array (CBA). Data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon test, and differences were considered significant when p < 0.05.
Atorvastatin showed no toxicity at the tested doses in RA PBMC cultures, and at 10μM, it showed the most significant results, reducing IL-17A (p = 0.002), TNF (p = 0.002), and IL-6 (p = 0.008) supernatant levels. The outcomes also revealed that only patients with more severe disease activity and those sensitive to corticoid treatments were responders to atorvastatin in vitro.
These findings suggest the potential immunomodulatory action of atorvastatin as a mechanism in rheumatoid arthritis treatment.