title: Gene expression profile predicting the response to anti-TNF treatment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis; analysis of GEO datasets.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapy is the treatment of choice for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in whom standard disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs are ineffective. However, a substantial proportion of RA patients treated with anti-TNF agents do not show a significant clinical response. Therefore, biomarkers predicting response to anti-TNF agents are needed. Recently, gene expression profiling has been applied in research for developing such biomarkers.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared gene expression profiles reported by previous studies dealing with the responsiveness of anti-TNF therapy in RA patients and attempted to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that discriminated between responders and non-responders to anti-TNF therapy. We used microarray datasets available at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO).
  
  
  RESULTS
  This analysis included 6 studies and 5 sets of microarray data that used peripheral blood samples for identification of DEGs predicting response to anti-TNF therapy. We found little overlap in the DEGs that were highly ranked in each study. Three DEGs including IL2RB, SH2D2A and G0S2 appeared in more than 1 study. In addition, a meta-analysis designed to increase statistical power found one DEG, G0S2 by the Fisher's method.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our finding suggests the possibility that G0S2 plays as a biomarker to predict response to anti-TNF therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Further investigations based on larger studies are therefore needed to confirm the significance of G0S2 in predicting response to anti-TNF therapy.
authors.affiliation: Hanyang University Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Tae-Hwan
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology, College of Medicine, Korea University, 126-1, Anam-Dong 5-Ga, Sungbuk-Ku, Seoul 136-705, South Korea.
authors.forename: Sung Jae
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology, College of Medicine, Korea University, 126-1, Anam-Dong 5-Ga, Sungbuk-Ku, Seoul 136-705, South Korea.
authors.forename: Young Ho
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology, College of Medicine, Korea University, 126-1, Anam-Dong 5-Ga, Sungbuk-Ku, Seoul 136-705, South Korea.
authors.forename: Gwan Gyu
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology, College of Medicine, Korea University, 126-1, Anam-Dong 5-Ga, Sungbuk-Ku, Seoul 136-705, South Korea. Electronic address: jjdjmesy@korea.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Jong Dae
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Ji
mesh_terms: D018501:Antirheumatic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*
chemical_list: D018501:Antirheumatic Agents; D015415:Biomarkers; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
keywords: Anti-TNF; Microarray; Response; Rheumatoid arthritis