IL-17, synoviolin and rheumatoid arthritis chronicity

Excerpt

The use of cytokine inhibitors has been a major progress in the treatment of chronic inflammation. However, not all patients respond and response will be often lost when treatment is stopped. These clinical aspects indicate that other cytokines might be involved and we focus here on the role of IL-17. In addition, the chronic nature of joint inflammation may contribute to reduced response and enhanced chronicity. We had previously observed that patients not responding well to TNF inhibition had higher blood expression of synoviolin, an E3 ubiquitin ligase previously shown to be implicated in synovial hyperplasia in human and mouse rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Therefore we studied the capacity of IL-17 to regulate synoviolin in human RA synoviocytes and in chronic reactivated streptococcal cell wall (SCW)-induced arthritis. …