The study was aimed at investigation of several gene variants of folate pathway enzymes for their potential association with methotrexate (MTX) treatment response in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Four hundred and twenty two Caucasian patients were classified as good or poor responders, and subsequently genotyped for common SNPs in DHFR, FPGS and ATIC genes.
No significant differences were observed in case of DHFR and FGPS SNPs. As for ATIC rs2372536 (Thr116Ser), GG minor genotype was significantly associated with good response to MTX (OR: 2.40; 95% CI: 1.30-4.42; p = 0.005), which was confirmed by multivariate analysis.
The results of the study suggest that ATIC missense rs2372536 SNP may influence response to MTX therapy in rheumatoid arthritis patients.