Established and novel insights to guide cancer assessment in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies.

Objective: Older age, dermatomyositis, and specific serum autoantibodies such as anti-TIF1-γ are associated with higher cancer risk in patients with myositis. We evaluated a vast cohort of patients with myositis for the prevalence of cancer, the association to disease features, and the performance of the recent IMACS guidelines.

Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis was performed and in all cases serum autoantibodies were tested using HEp-2, immunoassays, RNA- and protein-immunoprecipitation.

Obesity and fibromyalgia are associated with Difficult-to-Treat Rheumatoid Arthritis (D2T-RA) independent of age and gender.

Background: There is still a significant proportion of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in whom multiple therapeutic lines are ineffective. These cases are defined by the EULAR criteria as Difficult-to-Treat RA (D2T-RA) for which there is limited knowledge of predisposing factors.

Objective: To identify the clinical features associated with D2T-RA in real-life practice.

The evolving scenario of HCV-related mixed cryoglobulinemia and B-cell lymphoma in the era of direct-acting antivirals.

Introduction: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection represents a significant global health burden, particularly due to its extrahepatic immune-mediated manifestations, such as mixed cryoglobulinemia, associated vasculitis (CryoVas), and non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphoma (B-NHL), which pose significant challenges. The advent of direct-acting antiviral (DAA) has changed the therapeutic landscape for HCV-related complications.

Areas Covered: This review explores the evolving epidemiology and management of HCV extrahepatic manifestation and lymphoproliferative disorders in the era of DAAs.

Serum IL-23 levels reflect a myeloid inflammatory signature and predict the response to apremilast in patients with psoriatic arthritis.

Background: The phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) inhibitor apremilast downregulates the production of IL-23 and other pro-inflammatory cytokines involved in the pathogenesis of psoriatic arthritis (PsA).

Aim: To investigate the effects of apremilast on the production of cytokines by peripheral blood monocyte-derived macrophages, innate-like lymphocyte cells (ILCs), mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells, γδ T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, and NKT-like cells from patients with PsA manifesting different clinical responses to the treatment.

Methods: Peripheral blood samples were obtained from patients with PsA at baseline and after 1 and 4 months of apremilast therapy (n = 23) and 20 controls with osteoarthritis.

Cell damage shifts the microRNA content of small extracellular vesicles into a Toll-like receptor 7-activating cargo capable to propagate inflammation and immunity.

Background: The physiological relevance of cell-to-cell communication mediated by small extracellular vesicle-encapsulated microRNAs (sEV-miRNAs) remains debated because of the limiting representativity of specific miRNAs within the extracellular pool. We hypothesize that sEV-miRNA non-canonical function consisting of the stimulation of Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) may rely on a global shift of the sEV cargo rather than on the induction of one or few specific miRNAs. Psoriasis represents an ideal model to test such hypothesis as it is driven by overt activation of TLR7-expressing plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) following keratinocyte damage.