ROME – Changes in the methylation status of particular genes in psoriatic arthritis patients might provide the ability to predict failure to respond to tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors, according to preliminary research in 41 psoriatic arthritis patients.
Two genes stood out to the researchers from Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s: TNFRSF1B and CD70. Patients who had methylation changes to those genes were more likely to have secondary failure of TNF inhibitors, said Dr. Proton Rahman, professor of internal medicine at the university and coinvestigator on the study.
It will be necessary to conduct validation studies of the results in larger numbers of patients, as well as functional studies of the effects of methylation changes on the expression of those genes and their proteins, he said in a video interview at the European Congress of Rheumatology.