# Association of Baseline Serum Soluble Tumour Necrosis Factor Receptor Levels with the Response of Rheumatoid Arthritis to Janus Kinase Inhibitor Therapy

## TL;DR

This study found that baseline levels of soluble TNF receptors in blood can predict if rheumatoid arthritis patients will respond well to JAKinib treatment.

## Contribution

The study identifies sTNFR-I and sTNFR-II as novel predictors of JAKinib response in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

## Key findings

- Baseline sTNFR-I and sTNFR-II levels were significantly lower in patients achieving clinical remission.
- Log sTNFR-II values were a significant predictor of remission in multivariate analysis.
- IL-6 axis cytokines did not predict treatment response.

## Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate whether cytokines associated with tumour necrosis factor- (TNF-) α and interleukin- (IL-) 6 signalling could predict rheumatoid arthritis (RA) clinical remission (CR) with Janus kinase inhibitor (JAKinib) treatment using the Simplified Disease Activity Index (SDAI).

Eighty-nine patients with RA treated with JAKinibs were enrolled, and their clinical data were collected retrospectively. CR was defined as an SDAI ≤ 3.3 after 6 months of treatment with JAKinib. The serum samples of 89 patients were analysed for IL-6, soluble IL-6 receptor (sIL-6R), soluble gp130 (spg130), and soluble TNF receptor- (sTNFR-) I and sTNFR-II titres.

There were no significant differences in the baseline clinical parameters between the CR and non-CR groups. Serum levels of IL-6, sIL-6R, and sgp130 were not significantly different; whereas, the serum sTNFR-I and sTNFR-II levels were significantly lower in the CR group. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the baseline log sTNFR II values (OR: 0.002; p = 0.034) were predictors of CR.

Patients with RA can be stratified prior to JAKinib administration using serum sTNFR-I and sTNFR-II levels but not serum IL-6 axis cytokine levels (IL-6, sIL-6R, and sgp130).