SAT0018 Preliminary Analysis Reveals An Interferon Signature Is Associated with Non-Response To Etanercept in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

BackgroundThe treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has changed considerably over the last couple of decades, particularly since the introduction of biological therapies; however, a considerable proportion of patients fail to respond satisfactorily (30–40%). Early and effective treatment is known to correlate with better long-term outcomes and there is an unmet clinical need for predictors of response which can be used to stratify patients prior to treatment; so that those prone to non-response can be offered alternative options. We hypothesis that gene expression profiles of RA patients about to commence treatment with the biological drug etanercept will provide such a biomarker.ObjectivesTo identify gene expression biomarkers which discriminate between good-responders (R) and non-responders (NR) to etanercept in RA patients.Methods72 RA patients about to commence treatment with etanercept were chosen for analysis from the Biologics in Rheumatoid Arthritis Genetics and Genomics Study Syndicate (BRAGGSS) longitudinal cohort. Using the established EULAR classification criteria this equated to 34 R (28-joint disease activity score (DAS28) of ≤3.2 and improvement of >1.2) and 38 NR (DAS28 >5.1 and improvement 1.2 between R and NR and p-value