Effects of Biological Therapies on Molecular Features of Rheumatoid Arthritis
, Nuria Barbarroja †, Alejandra M. Patiño-Trives, Maria Luque-Tévar, Eduardo Collantes-Estevez, Alejandro Escudero-Contreras ‡ and Carlos Pérez-Sánchez ‡Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I read with great interest the paper from Lopez-Pedrera C et al entitle “Effects of biological therapies on key molecular features of Rheumatoid Arthritis”
The paper is a review on the topic.
The paper is well written with clear data.
Major comment
1/ Nice review but mostly descriptive without explanations on controversial results sometimes due to heterogeneity of experimentations.
2/ I am not sure that Title is correct. The main molecular feature of RA is the presence of ACPA and RF. Furthermore, recent data strongly demonstrated impact of periodontal disease and P gingivalis in RA outcome. I suggest to add a paragraph on it or to change the title by “selected key molecular features”.
Minor comment
1/ Many abbreviations are defined several times.
Author Response
1.- We really appreciate the comment of this referee. As indicated, this is an extensive descriptive review where making explanations on controversial results through the manuscript is difficult, due to the huge amount of data and great experimental heterogeneity. Nevertheless, we included a “Conclusion section” where we have resumed the key concepts and controversies exposed in the review.
2.- As suggested the title has been changed. Authors agree that other relevant molecular mechanisms, such as periodontal disease, are also involved in the pathogenesis of RA, which had not been addressed in this review.
Thus, “key” has been removed from the title, so that it now states as follows: “Effects of biological therapies on molecular features of Rheumatoid Arthritis”.
In addition, we agree with the referee on the comment about the relevance of periodontal disease and P gingivalis in RA outcome and thus a new paragraph about the importance of periodontal disease in RA has been added in the introduction section (page 2 ). Besides, periodontal disease has been included in the figure 1.
Minor comment
1.- The manuscript has been carefully revised and abbreviations have been checked out and only defined in the first time mentioned. Additionally, as a request by the journal a table with the abbreviations and their definitions has been included at the end of the review.
Reviewer 2 Report
In their review article "Effects of biological therapies on key molecular features of Rheumatoid Arthritis", the authors describe in detail and knowledgeably the effects of therapy with Biologica at both the cellular and molecular level. Beginning with autoimmunity and the cells of inflammation involved in it, through the physiopathological changes in rheumatoid arthritis to gene expression and the role of microRNA and the drug influence on the disease at each of these levels, the authors present their view on the current state of knowledge. The manuscript is easy to read and understand. Only the inevitable multitude of abbreviations may challenge those who do not work routinely in molecular experimental rheumatology. But this is due to the topic. As a review article, the submitted manuscript is recommended for publication.
Author Response
We sincerely acknowledge the revision of this manuscript and your positive consideration.
