RESEARCH - A genomic view of subtypes in RA: towards personalized medicine

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Summary

Future Rheumatology

June 2006, Vol. 1, No. 3, Pages 311-322

(doi:10.2217/17460816.1.3.311)

A genomic view of subtypes in rheumatoid arthritis: towards

personalized medicine

GM van Baarsen, Tineke CTM van der Pouw-Kraan & Cornelis L Verweij

VU Medical Center, Department of Molecular Cell Biology and

Immunology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

VU Medical Center, Department of Molecular Cell Biology and

Immunology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

VU Medical Center, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and

Immunology, J295, PO Box 7057, 1007 MB Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

There is growing evidence that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a

heterogeneous disease. The disease is generally referred to in terms

of a group average, which may hamper the progress in understanding its

genetic basis, pathogenic mechanisms and the treatment success for

subsets of patients. Unfortunately, criteria for subtyping of

patients, for example to select those patients who will benefit from a

specific treatment, is currently lacking. Since, by definition, nearly

every aspect of a disease phenotype should be represented in the

pattern of genes and proteins that are expressed in the affected

tissues and organs, molecular typing of patients is likely to yield

useful classifiers for RA subtyping. This paper will describe novel

developments in genomics and proteomics research for the

identification of biomarkers for disease subclassification in RA. This

information will also improve our understanding of the underlying

biology of RA subtypes. Ultimately, this information will help

clinicians to select subgroups of RA patients for optimal treatment.

http://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/abs/10.2217/17460816.1.3.311

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