1. Nat. Rev. Rheumatol. doi:10.1038/nrrheum.2015.171
Figure 1 Cytokine profiles that subserve the biology of discrete phases of the rheumatoid arthritis disease process
Figure 1 | Cytokine profiles that subserve the biology of discrete phases of the rheumatoid arthritis disease process. This figure depicts the notion that groups of cytokines (e.g. IL-6, IL-21, IL-23, IL-17) likely drive adaptive immune activation/differentiation and loss of tolerance in preclinical or early arthritis, whereas distinct profiles might dominate the transition to chronicity or the maintenance of established disease (e.g. TNF, IL-6), and perhaps phases of disease dominated by response to damage (e.g. cytokines released by activators of damage-sensing pathways). Such cytokine profiles could yield new biomarker profiles, or novel insights into the rational, 'pathogenesis stage-dependent' application of cytokine-targeting therapeutics. For example, cytokine signatures could separate those patients destined to fail (A) or respond to (B) a given intervention, and once in remission those patients destined to flare (C) or remain in a low disease activity state (D).
McInnes, I. B. et al. (2015) Cytokines in rheumatoid arthritis — shaping the immunological landscape
Nat. Rev. Rheumatol. doi: /nrrheum