Biomarkers in psoriasis can predict the efficacy of methotrexate

[Fred]

Seven differentially expressed and regulated proteins as biomarkers to predict MTX efficacy.

Quote:

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Background:
Methotrexate (MTX) is the first-line medicine to treat psoriasis. So far, there has been less research on protein biomarkers to predict its efficacy by the proteomic technique.

Objectives:
To evaluate differentially expressed proteins in peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMCs) between good responders (GRs) and non-responders (NRs) after MTX treatment, compared with normal controls (NCs).

Methods:
We quantified protein expression of PBMCs with 4 GRs and 4 NRs to MTX and 4 NCs by isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ), analyzing and identifying proteins related to efficacy of MTX in 18 psoriatic patients.

Results:
A total of 3,177 proteins had quantitative information, and 403 differentially expressed proteins (fold change ≥ 1.2, p < .05) were identified. Compared to NCs, upregulated proteins (ANXA6, RPS27A, EZR, XRCC6), participating in the activation of NF-κB, the JAK-STAT pathway, and neutrophil degranulation were detected in GRs. The proteins (GPV, FN1, STOM), involving platelet activation, signaling and aggregation as well as neutrophil degranulation were significantly downregulated in GRs. These proteins returned to normal levels after MTX treatment. Furthermore, Western blotting identified the expression of ANXA6 and STAT1 in PBMCs, which were significantly downregulated in GRs, but not in NRs.

Conclusions:
We identified seven differentially expressed and regulated proteins (ANXA6, GPV, FN1, XRCC6, STOM, RPS27A, and EZR) as biomarkers to predict MTX efficacy in NF-κB signaling, JAK-STAT pathways, neutrophil degranulation, platelet activation, signaling and aggregation.

Source: onlinelibrary.wiley.com

*Early view funding unknown.

[Caroline]

Why in heavens name are they researching an old fashioned poison like MTX.

Focus on the better stuff guys…

[Fred]

Why in heavens name are they researching an old fashioned poison like MTX.

Focus on the better stuff guys…

[KatT]

Euh...most of this flew over my head!

Even though I am lucky to respond well with no side effects from MTX,  did they ask themselves if tests to look at protein biomarkers can be done to determine if a patient would respond well before prescribing?

These tests are most likely not routine tests, probably expensive as they need to be sent to a specialized lab, etc.

So was this study worth it????  I don't think so!

Will they do this research on all treatments? Lots of treatments available now and more in the works....they will do research for a long time!

And then what 

[Fred]

So was this study worth it????  I don't think so!

In my opinion No as I agree with Caroline. It's old poison and should not be used for psoriasis.

[Turnedlight]

They’d never bother doing that test. They just give you drugs and if you say they don’t work they probably put it down to the patient not taking the drug, as per their training.

And they won’t stop using it because it’s cheap, and that’s the most important thing.

[Fred]

They’d never bother doing that test. They just give you drugs and if you say they don’t work they probably put it down to the patient not taking the drug, as per their training.

And they won’t stop using it because it’s cheap, and that’s the most important thing.

True

[jiml]

They’d never bother doing that test. They just give you drugs and if you say they don’t work they probably put it down to the patient not taking the drug, as per their training.

And they won’t stop using it because it’s cheap, and that’s the most important thing.

Agreed TL it's all down to cost

[Caroline]

They’d never bother doing that test. They just give you drugs and if you say they don’t work they probably put it down to the patient not taking the drug, as per their training.

And they won’t stop using it because it’s cheap, and that’s the most important thing.

True

Utterly true.

And a disgusting attitude.

[Turnedlight]

They’d never bother doing that test. They just give you drugs and if you say they don’t work they probably put it down to the patient not taking the drug, as per their training.

And they won’t stop using it because it’s cheap, and that’s the most important thing.

True

Utterly true.

And a disgusting attitude.

Do you know I read the other day that the nhs budget exceeded the GDP of Greece this year.
So why do they keep saying they have no money? Where the heck is it all going?

To answer my own question, apparently we are not spending proportionately as much on it as other countries do. It just sounds huge in real terms..