The type I interferon signature as biomarker of pre-clinical Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objectives To validate the presence and demonstrate the clinical value of the type I interferon (IFN)-signature during arthritis development. Method In 115 seropositive arthralgia patients who were followed for the development of arthritis (Amsterdam Reade cohort), and 25 pre-symptomatic individuals who developed RA later and 45 population-based controls (Northern Sweden cohort) the expression levels of 7 type I IFN response genes were determined with multiplex qPCR and an IFN-score was calculated. The diagnostic performance of the IFN-score was evaluated using Cox regression and Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC)-curve analysis.