Rheumatoid Arthritis: Olson JC

Olson JC. · Medical College of Wisconsin, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wis, USA. · WMJ. · Pubmed #14711024 No free full text.

Abstract: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common chronic arthropathy of childhood. Previous terminology identified this entity as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. The 7 subsets of JIA identified under the new classification system are discussed, as are current treatments. A differential diagnosis of JIA is included as this condition continues to be diagnosed by exclusion. Recent studies, which discuss the outcome of adults with previous childhood arthritis, are reviewed.

Lovell DJ, Giannini EH, Reiff A, Jones OY, Schneider R, Olson JC, Stein LD, Gedalia A, Ilowite NT, Wallace CA, Lange M, Finck BK, Burge DJ, Anonymous00012. · Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229-3039, USA. · Arthritis Rheum. · Pubmed #12528122 links to  free full text

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of etanercept in children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) participating in an ongoing multicenter, open-label, extended-treatment trial. All patients had been participants in an initial randomized efficacy and safety trial of etanercept. METHODS: Etanercept was administered at a dosage of 0.4 mg/kg (maximum 25 mg) subcutaneously twice each week. Safety and efficacy evaluations were performed every 3-4 months. The JRA 30% definition of improvement (DOI) was defined as improvement of > or =30% in at least 3 of 6 response variables used to assess disease activity, with no more than 1 variable worsening by more than 30%. RESULTS: At the time of analysis, 48 of the 58 patients (83%) were still enrolled in the study; 43 of them (74%) had completed 2 years of treatment. Of these 43 patients, 81% met the JRA 30% DOI, 79% met the JRA 50% DOI, and 67% met the JRA 70% DOI. Ten children started low-dose methotrexate after year 1. Of the 32 children taking prednisone, the dosage was decreased to <5 mg/day in 26 (81%). Two children had serious infections (varicella with aseptic meningitis in one and complicated sepsis in the other). In general, adverse events were of the types seen in a general pediatric patient population. CONCLUSION: Children with severe, longstanding, methotrexate-resistant polyarticular JRA demonstrated sustained clinical improvement with >2 years of continuous etanercept treatment. Etanercept was generally well-tolerated. There were no increases in the rates of adverse events over time. However, children taking etanercept should be monitored closely for infections.

Barnes MG, Grom AA, Thompson SD, Griffin TA, Pavlidis P, Itert L, Fall N, Sowders DP, Hinze CH, Aronow BJ, Luyrink LK, Srivastava S, Ilowite NT, Gottlieb BS, Olson JC, Sherry DD, Glass DN, Colbert RA. · Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio. · Arthritis Rheum. · Pubmed #19565513 No free full text.

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To identify differences in peripheral blood gene expression between patients with different subclasses of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and healthy controls in a multicenter study of patients with recent-onset JIA prior to treatment with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) or biologic agents. METHODS: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 59 healthy children and 136 patients with JIA (28 with enthesitis-related arthritis [ERA], 42 with persistent oligoarthritis, 45 with rheumatoid factor [RF]-negative polyarthritis, and 21 with systemic disease) were isolated from whole blood. Poly(A) RNA was labeled using a commercial RNA amplification and labeling system (NuGEN Ovation), and gene expression profiles were obtained using commercial expression microarrays (Affymetrix HG-U133 Plus 2.0). RESULTS: A total of 9,501 differentially expressed probe sets were identified among the JIA subtypes and controls (by analysis of variance; false discovery rate 5%). Specifically, 193, 1,036, 873, and 7,595 probe sets were different in PBMCs from the controls compared with those from the ERA, persistent oligoarthritis, RF-negative polyarthritis, and systemic JIA patients, respectively. In patients with persistent oligoarthritis, RF-negative polyarthritis, and systemic JIA subtypes, up-regulation of genes associated with interleukin-10 (IL-10) signaling was prominent. A hemoglobin cluster was identified that was underexpressed in ERA patients but overexpressed in systemic JIA patients. The influence of JAK/STAT, ERK/MAPK, IL-2, and B cell receptor signaling pathways was evident in patients with persistent oligoarthritis. In systemic JIA, up-regulation of innate immune pathways, including IL-6, Toll-like receptor/IL-1 receptor, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor signaling, were noted, along with down-regulation of gene networks related to natural killer cells and T cells. Complement and coagulation pathways were up-regulated in systemic JIA, with a subset of these genes being differentially expressed in other subtypes as well. CONCLUSION: Expression analysis identified differentially expressed genes in PBMCs obtained early in the disease from patients with different subtypes of JIA and in healthy controls, providing evidence of immunobiologic differences between these forms of childhood arthritis.