Do Fatty Acids Underlie Rheumatoid Arthritis Pathology?

“Our results identify that a balance between stearic and both EPA and DHA is related to a good clinical response in patients undergoing TNFα-blockade,” explain the authors. “Overall, our findings suggest that effective TNFα neutralization may counteract the disease duration-dependent NEFA impairment in RA.”

The converse was also true: impaired NEFA levels were associated with poor clinical outcome, even in patients undergoing TNFα-blockade. If this finding is repeated in future studies, then these fatty acids may represent a novel therapeutic target and open the door for future lipodomic studies in RA and other human diseases.

Lara C. Pullen, PhD, is a medical writer based in the Chicago area.

Reference

1. Rodríguez-Carrio J, Alperi-López M, López P, et al. Non-esterified fatty acids profiling in rheumatoid arthritis: Associations with clinical features and Th1 response. PLoS One. 2016 Aug 3;11(8):e0159573. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159573. eCollection 2016.