Results from DocTIS presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology
Dr. Ernest Choy, Professor and Head of Rheumatology at Cardiff University and DocTIS project partner, presented results from the DocTIS project last week at the ACR Convergence congress, the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology. His poster, entitled “Transcriptome Analysis of Drug Response in a Large Cohort of Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Disease Patients Supports Advanced Combination Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis”, highlighted key results from the DocTIS project.
The study is the result of the collaboration between all scientific partners of the DocTIS project including Cardiff University, VHIR, IDIBAPS, Charité, Verona University, CNAG, HudsonAlpha, and IMIDomics). Using patient data and systems biology approaches, the DocTIS consortium has been able to identify effective drug combinations for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs).
Targeted therapies often fail to achieve sustained remission in IMIDs. This study analysed blood transcriptomes and single-cell RNA-Seq data from patients with extreme therapy responses. To this data, systems biology approaches have been applied to identify the most complementary drug pairs for each IMID. The findings revealed that anti-TNF and anti-IL6R therapies show a significant level of complementarity for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. This pairing mitigates non-response signatures and brings patient molecular profiles closer to those of healthy individuals. Together, these results support the potential of this combination to significantly improve treatment efficacy and achieve lasting remission in rheumatoid arthritis.
Dr. Choy remarked: “More than 30 people dropped by to discuss the study, excited by the potential of combining therapies to help people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases achieve long-term relief. The promise of sustained remission through innovative approaches sparked lively interest and hope among the attendees”.
About ACR Convergence
Held from November 14–19 in Washington D.C., ACR Convergence is the world’s largest conference in Rheumatology, attracting approximately 15,000 professionals, making it a premier event for sharing the latest advances in rheumatologic research.
During the event, Dr. Choy was interviewed by the rheumatology news portal RheumNow to discuss his presentation and the results from DocTIS. Watch the full interview here:
