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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Disorders : Autoimmune Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1504454
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in Antigen-Specific Immunotherapies for Autoimmune Disease Management View all 9 articles

Evaluation of B cell related Markers and Autoantibodies in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients treated with Abatacept

Provisionally accepted
Ting Wang Ting Wang Natalia V. Giltiay Natalia V. Giltiay Christian Lood Christian Lood Bobby Kwanghoon Han Bobby Kwanghoon Han *
  • Division of Rheumatology, University of Washington, Seattle, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objectives: To investigate whether biomarkers related to B cell activation and autoantibody production are associated with the response to abatacept in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.Methods: Twenty-five patients with RA were enrolled in this study. Responders (n=10) to abatacept were subjects who achieved ACR50 response at week 24. Serum levels of soluble biomarkers were measured with ProcartaPlex by Luminex or ELISA. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated and analysed for T cell and B cell subsets by flow cytometry. Patients were genotyped for human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DRB1 shared epitope (SE) alleles. Baseline levels and longitudinal changes of markers were assessed between responders and nonresponders.Results: Baseline levels of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies (p=0.01), IgM rheumatoid factor (RF) (p=0.02), CXC chemokine ligand 13 (CXCL13, p=0.02), sCD23 (p<0.05), as well as frequencies of CD19 + CD11c + IgD -CD27 -B cells (p=0.04), were higher in responders than nonresponders. Among them, anti-CCP and frequencies of CD19 + CD11c + IgD -CD27 -B cells were independently associated with response to abatacept. The presence of two alleles of SE was associated with responders (p=0.04). Patients with 2 alleles of SE had higher levels of anti-CCP (p=0.02) and IgM RF (p=0.04) compared to patients with 0 or 1 allele. Further, IgM RF and CXCL13 levels decreased only in responders (p=0.02 and 0.004 respectively, at week 24), while anti-CCP levels did not decrease significantly in either responders or nonresponders.Markers of B cell activation including anti-CCP and frequencies of CD19 + CD11c + IgD - CD27 -B cells in RA were associated with response to abatacept. IgM RF and CXCL13 decreased only in responders and could be potentially used as pharmacodynamic markers.

    Keywords: Abatacept, predictive biomarker, B cell, CXCL13, Rheumatoid Factor, Rheumatoid arthritis

    Received: 30 Sep 2024; Accepted: 02 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Giltiay, Lood and Han. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Bobby Kwanghoon Han, Division of Rheumatology, University of Washington, Seattle, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.