Are there causal mucosal drivers in the preclinical development of rheumatoid arthritis?

The causal pathways which drive the development of seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are incompletely understood, especially in the period of time prior to the first development of signs and symptoms of joint involvement. That asymptomatic period, designated herein as pre-RA, is characterized by the presence of RA-related autoantibodies for many years and is the subject of an increasing number of studies as well as a focus of efforts to prevent the onset of clinically apparent arthritis.

To review the potential causal pathways in pre-RA by examining results of studies which evaluate the systemic peripheral blood and mucosal alterations that have been identified in individuals who are genetically at-risk, and/or who elaborate RA-related autoantibodies, and are defined as in a pre-RA period.

Published studies by the author and his colleagues, as well as publications by other groups, which describe the presence of biomarkers at mucosal sites and in the blood were reviewed. From these studies, a hypothesis related to the presence of pre-RA causal drivers was constructed.

The author and his colleagues, as well as other groups, have shown that there are multiple mucosal sites, primarily gut, lung and oral/peridontial, which appear in subsets of individuals in the pre-RA to exhibit inflammation and/or the presence of local production of IgA and IgG RA-related autoantibodies, including anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA). These findings are reviewed herein. There remain a large number of unanswered questions, though, related to the immune mechanisms that are operative at each site, as well as how these local findings evolve to causal systemic autoimmunity and eventually inflammatory arthritis.

Comprehensive natural history studies are required to understand how multiple mucosal sites which appear to be involved in pre-RA are causally involved in the development of arthritis. Questions remain as to whether there are independent, serially involved, or inter-related causal immune pathways originating from these sites. In addition, the microbiota which may be involved in local immune inflammation and autoantibody production should be identified and characterized.