Trial reportArthritis research & therapy2019
In rheumatoid arthritis, changes in autoantibody levels reflect intensity of immunosuppression, not subsequent treatment response.
Trial report in Arthritis research & therapy, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 61 citations in OpenAlex.
- Diagnostic accuracy of anti-integrin αvβ6 in ulcerative colitis: a diagnostic meta-analysis.Journal of gastroenterology · 2026Pooled it
- Ozoralizumab shows effectiveness regardless of baseline RF and ACPA titres in patients with RA: a post hoc analysis of the OHZORA trial.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Improved classification of rheumatoid arthritis with a score including anti-acetylated ornithine antibodies.Scientific reports · 2020Trial
- Anti-Modified Protein Antibodies in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Pathogenic, Protective, or Passive Bystander?Immunological reviews · 2026Review
- Eye-openers for advanced management of elderly-onset rheumatoid arthritis.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Autoantibodies as prognostic markers in rheumatoid arthritis.Journal of translational autoimmunity · 2025Review
- Dual-responsive synthetic gene circuit for dynamic biologic drug delivery via inflammatory and circadian signaling pathways.Journal of biological engineering · 2025Review
- Evidence of Site-Specific Mucosal Autoantibody Secretion in Rheumatoid Arthritis.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Article
- Triple positivity for autoantibodies in patients with rheumatoid arthritis is associated with a severe course of the disease but not with bone turnover markers.Reumatologia · 2025Article
- Biomarkers in the diagnosis, prognosis and management of rheumatoid arthritis: A comprehensive review.Annals of clinical biochemistry · 2025Review
- Review
- Contributions of Synthetic Chemicals to Autoimmune Disease Development and Occurrence.Current environmental health reports · 2024Review
- B-Cell Receptor Repertoire: Recent Advances in Autoimmune Diseases.Clinical reviews in allergy & immunology · 2024Review
- Clinical performance of AMA-M2, anti-gp210 and anti-sp100 antibody levels in primary biliary cholangitis: When detected by multiplex bead-based flow fluorescent immunoassay.Immunity, inflammation and disease · 2024Article
- The association between CYB5A gene rs1790834 polymorphism and clinical improvement after 6 months of leflunomide treatment in women with rheumatoid arthritis.Clinical rheumatology · 2023Article
- Tailored therapeutic decision of rheumatoid arthritis using proteomic strategies: how to start and when to stop?Clinical proteomics · 2023Review
- Geo-epidemiology of autoantibodies in rheumatoid arthritis: comparison between four ethnically diverse populations.Arthritis research & therapy · 2023Article
- Important denominator between autoimmune comorbidities: a review of class II HLA, autoimmune disease, and the gut.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by the presence of autoantibodies like rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide-2 (anti-CCP2), and anti-carbamylated protein (anti-CarP) antibodies. It is currently unclear whether changes in autoantibody levels are associated with disease activity/treatment outcomes and whether they are modified by treatment intensity. Therefore, we determined longitudinal changes in RA-autoantibody levels, the association between these changes and activity score (DAS) and treatment outcomes, and the effect of intensity of immunosuppressive treatment on levels.
methodsIn 381 seropositive RA patients from the IMPROVED study, we measured IgG, IgM, and IgA of anti-CCP2 and anti-CarP; IgM and IgA of RF; and IgG against four citrullinated and two acetylated peptides at 4-month intervals over the first year of treatment. Following initial prednisone and methotrexate (MTX), treatment was changed every 4 months aiming for DAS < 1.6. We investigated changes in autoantibody levels following treatment escalation versus tapering, and the association of levels with DAS over time, EULAR response, and drug-free remission (DFR) ≥ 1 year.
resultsFor all 14 autoantibodies, levels decreased from 0 to 4 months and then rose until 12 months. Following treatment escalation, autoantibody levels dropped markedly, while they rose following tapering: RF IgM levels, a representative autoantibody, dropped 10% after restarting prednisone and rose 15% aU/mL after tapering MTX (p < 0.0001). There was no association between autoantibody levels and DAS over time or EULAR response. Greater relative changes between 0 and 12 months did not predict DFR (0-12-month relative change RF IgM, - 39% for no DFR (n = 126) and - 16% for DFR (n = 18)).
conclusionsChanges in RA-autoantibody levels are not associated with DAS or long-term treatment response, but reflect intensity of immunosuppression. This suggests that autoantibody levels are modifiable by current therapies, but that modifying levels is in itself of limited clinical relevance.
trial registrationISRCTN11916566 . Registered on 7 November 2006.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.