Multiplex SNP array for the stratification of therapy response in rheumatoid arthritis patients

风湿性关节炎（RA）是一种慢性炎症性疾病，影响全球1%的人口和英国40万人。它会导致关节破坏、进行性残疾，并经常导致死亡。RA中细胞因子TNF-α的相关性导致抗TNF药物的开发和广泛使用，以阻断其促炎作用，其在60-70%的患者中有效。30-40%的接受治疗的患者没有从这些昂贵的药物中获益，仍然需要支付费用和可能的副作用。拟定方案解决了预先识别对抗TNF治疗无应答的患者的未满足临床需求。Randox的著名工业创新与阿尔斯特大学的生物标志物发现相结合，创造了一个新的影响遗传标记小组，用于组装到多路生物芯片阵列上，以快速确定抗TNF治疗的反应。

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting 1% of the global population and 400,000 people in the UK. It leads to joint destruction, progressive disability and often mortality. Association of the cytokine, TNF-alpha in RA has led to development and widespread use of anti-TNF drugs to block its pro-inflammatory effects, which are effective in 60-70% of patients. The 30-40% of treated patients, who derive no benefit from these expensive drugs, still incur the cost and possible side effects. The proposed addresses the unmet clinical need for prior identification of patients who will not respond to anti-TNF therapy. The renowned industrial innovation of Randox combined with biomarker discoveries at University of Ulster has created a novel panel of influencing genetic markers for assembly onto a multiplex biochip array to rapidly determine resonse to anti-TNF therapy.