MicroRNAs in Rheumatoid Arthritis: From Pathogenesis to Clinical Utility

Abstract

Emerging evidence suggests that microRNAs (miRNAs) play a key role in the regula-tion of immunological functions including innate and adaptive immune responses, development and differentiation of immune cells, and the prevention of autoimmunity. The current state of our knowledge in this area is far from being complete, and continued investigations will be needed to reveal a better understanding of the miRNA network that is involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In RA, miRNA plays an important role in many different cellular processes. It has been shown that they modulate inflammatory responses, proliferation of synoviocytes, and production of metallopro-teinases in rheumatoid joins and affect the development, differentiation, effector, and regulatory functions of T and B cells and cytokine production. The specific circulating miRNA species may also be useful for the diagnosis, classification, and prognosis of dis-eases and prediction of the therapeutic response.