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RA is an autoimmune disorder

of unknown aetiology

http://eipfstaging.bas.roche.com/portal/roactemra/copy_safety_and_tolerability

Aetiology of RA

  • RA is a heterogeneous autoimmune disease of unknown cause that presents with diverse clinical symptoms.1
  • However, there appears to be a strong genetic component to the aetiology of RA1,2
    • The HLA (human leukocyte antigen) region on chromosome 6 has been identified as a major genetic risk locus.3
  • A number of environmental influencers have been described as risk factors for developing RA.4,5
  • Investigations have failed to associate RA with any specific infectious agent, but it is possible that infection may trigger RA in individual cases.6

References:

  1. van der Helm-van Mil AH, et al. Emerging patterns of risk factor make-up enable subclassification of rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum 2007; 56:1728–1735.
  2. Begovich AB, et al. A missense single-nucleotide polymorphism in a gene encoding a protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTPN22) is associated with rheumatoid arthritis. Am J Hum Genet 2004; 75:330–337.
  3. Lee HS, et al. Genetic risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis differ in Caucasian and Korean populations. Arthritis Rheum 2009; 60:364–371.
  4. Sugiyama D, et al. Impact of smoking as a risk factor for developing rheumatoid arthritis: A meta-analysis of observational studies. Ann Rheum Dis 2009 [epub].
  5. Pedersen M, et al. Environmental risk factors differ between rheumatoid arthritis with and without auto-antibodies against cyclic citrullinated peptides. Arthritis Res Ther 2006; 8:R133.
  6. Symmons D & Harrison B. Early inflammatory polyarthritis: results from the Norfolk arthritis register with a review of the literature. I. Risk factors for the development of inflammatory polyarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatology (Oxford) 2000; 39:835–843.