Researchers at the College of Pharmacy at the University of Basrah Professor Dr. Iman Tariq Ali, Professor Dr. Falah Hassan Shari and researcher Ahmed Taha Yassin, published a study entitled (Comparative analyses of the levels of immune markers in Iraqi patients with rheumatoid arthritis, negative and positive serum) in the Journal of the Iraqi Society for Medical Research and Studies.
The study aims to evaluate the possibility of increased risk in rheumatoid arthritis patients who suffer from seronegative serology for common markers by measuring the serum levels of CCN4, VCAM-1, MMP-3 and GM-CSF in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, positive and positive serum. And their relationship to disease activity.
The retrospective study was conducted from October 2022 to July 2023. The cohort included 250 adult males and females aged 20-73 years. The study demonstrated the presence of direct proportional correlations between DAS28 ESR levels and CCN4, VCAM1, MMP3, GM-CSF and DAS28 CRP levels in RA patients. The study concluded that RA patients with negative serotypes showed higher activity compared to their seropositive counterparts. In addition, the high levels of CCN4, VCAM-1, MMP-3 and GM-CSF in SNRA patients demonstrated their value as markers for predicting disease stages as well as for the diagnosis-based classification of people at risk for developing RA. The findings of the study further confirmed the clinical implications of these biomarkers in the management of RA. The four immune molecules examined in this study demonstrate their reliability and effectiveness as biomarkers that can be used to monitor and predict rheumatoid arthritis activity, as well as joint and bone damage in seronegative patients with rheumatoid arthritis.