Key clinical point: Patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) have dysregulated immune cell profiles that were partially normalized to the levels in control individuals after guselkumab treatment, with this effect being more pronounced among American College of Rheumatology 20 (ACR20) responders.
Major finding: At baseline, 355 and 314 PsA-related genes were upregulated and downregulated, respectively, in patients with PsA vs control individuals, with guselkumab treatment modulating the expression of 82% of upregulated and 77% of downregulated genes at week 24. The ACR20 responders showed a significant decrease in gene set enrichment scores for upregulated PsA-associated genes after 24 weeks of guselkumab treatment (all P ≤ .05).
Study details: This study evaluated whole blood transcriptome profiles of 673 patients with PsA from the DISCOVER-1 and DISCOVER-2 studies. The patients received guselkumab or placebo and there were 21 matched healthy control individuals.
Disclosures: This study was sponsored by Janssen Research & Development (R&D), LLC. Nine authors declared being employees of Janssen R&D and owning stock or stock options in Johnson & Johnson. The other authors reported ties with Janssen or other sources.
Source: Siebert S et al. Guselkumab modulates differentially expressed genes in blood of patients with psoriatic arthritis: Results from two phase 3, randomized, placebo-controlled trials. ACR Open Rheumatol. 2023 (Aug 8). doi: 10.1002/acr2.11589