ArticleArthritis research & therapy2022
Calprotectin (S100A8/S100A9) detects inflammatory activity in rheumatoid arthritis patients receiving tocilizumab therapy.
Article in Arthritis research & therapy, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Elevated level of circulating calprotectin correlates with severity and high mortality in patients with COVID-19.Immunity, inflammation and disease · 2024Pooled it
- Synovial microenvironment and fluorescence imaging for early rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis.Journal of pharmaceutical analysis · 2026Review
- Calprotectin and serum amyloid A for disease activity assessment in giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica: results from a prospective single-centre cohort study.Rheumatology international · 2026Article
- Neutrophil extracellular traps in rheumatoid arthritis: biomarkers, drivers, and emerging therapeutic targets.Clinical and experimental immunology · 2026Review
- Longitudinal Comparison of Calprotectin and C-Reactive Protein in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Real-World Evidence Across Three Targeted Therapies.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The role of calprotectin in giant cell arteritis - from pathophysiology to possible clinical applications.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Serum Calprotectin in the Evaluation of Gastrointestinal Diseases: An Ace up Your Sleeve?Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Review
- The Role of Alarmins in the Pathogenesis of Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteoarthritis, and Psoriasis.Current issues in molecular biology · 2024Review
- New blood biomarkers and imaging for disease stratification and monitoring of giant cell arteritis.RMD open · 2024Article
- Calprotectin: two sides of the same coin.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2024Review
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAssessing serological inflammation is difficult in tocilizumab (TCZ)-treated rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, as standard inflammation parameters, like erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP), are influenced by interleukin-6-receptor inhibition. Calprotectin in the serum, also named S100A8/S100A9, might be a more useful inflammation parameter in TCZ-treated patients.
methodsSixty-nine RA patients taking TCZ were included. Serum-calprotectin levels were assessed, as well as ESR, CRP, need for a change in disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs due to RA activity (= active RA), and the RA clinical disease activity score (CDAI). Forty-five RA patients taking tumor-necrosis factor-inhibitors (TNFi) were investigated for the same parameters.
resultsTCZ-treated patients with active RA had higher calprotectin values than not active RA patients (4155.5 [inter quartile range 1865.3-6068.3] vs 1040.0 [676.0-1638.0] ng/ml, P < 0.001). A calprotectin cut-off value of 1916.5 ng/ml resulted in a sensitivity and specificity of 80.0 %, respectively, for the detection of RA disease activity. Calprotectin values correlated with CDAI-scores (r = 0.228; P = 0.011). ESR and CRP were less suitable to detect RA activity in TCZ-treated patients. Also TNFi-treated patients with active RA had higher calprotectin values compared to not active RA (5422.0 [3749.0-8150.8] vs 1845.0 [832.0-2569.0] ng/ml, P < 0.001). The calprotectin value with the best sensitivity and specificity for detecting RA activity was 3690.5 ng/ml among TNFi-treated patients.
conclusionCalprotectin in the serum can be a useful inflammation parameter despite TCZ-treatment.
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