Current Trends and Future Challenges in Rheumatology

A special issue of Journal of Personalized Medicine (ISSN 2075-4426). This special issue belongs to the section "Personalized Therapy and Drug Delivery".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 September 2024 | Viewed by 759

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Rheumatology Department, Usl Tuscany Center, San Giovanni di Dio Hospital, Via di Torre Galli 3, 50143 Florence, Italy
Interests: connective disease; vasculitis; rheumatoid arthritis; spondyloarhtitis; ultrasound; rare disease
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new Special Issue, “Current Trends and Future Challenges in Rheumatology [JPM]”.

There is a need for personalized and modern strategies in prediction, early diagnosis, and tailored treatment in arthritis, vasculitis, connective tissue, and rare diseases.

This Special Issue aims to elucidate the most recent innovations in prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment in rheumatology.

There are still many underexplored aspects of the role of constitutive (genes, microbiota, biopsy patterns, and gender) and external (infections and lifestyle) factors in rheumatic diseases. Modern medicine is oriented to develop innovative integrated systems (algorithms and machine learning) and new biomarkers to predict different phenotypes and severity. The COVID-19 pandemic changed many views, introducing “smart medicine” with the implementation of non-face-to-face visits with telemedicine and innovative uses of imaging (ultrasound, magnetic resonance, HRCT, and PET), which had important consequences for the knowledge of emerging underestimated rare diseases.

This Special Issue offers to explore these fascinating aspects:

  1. Identification of predictive and pathogenetic factors, in particular in understated and rare diseases;
  2. Innovative diagnostic tools in histology, laboratory, and imaging biomarkers;
  3. Algorithms, artificial intelligence, and telemedicine;
  4. Tailored emerging new drugs.

We are soliciting original articles, meta-analyses, reviews, and case series related to future challenges in rheumatology.

Dr. Francesca Bandinelli
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Personalized Medicine is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • rheumatology
  • connective disease
  • vasculitis
  • rheumatoid arthritis
  • telemedicine
  • imaging

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 1721 KiB  
Article
Sequence Alignment between TRIM33 Gene and Human Noncoding RNAs: A Potential Explanation for Paraneoplastic Dermatomyositis
by Rossella Talotta
J. Pers. Med. 2024, 14(6), 628; https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm14060628 - 13 Jun 2024
Viewed by 238
Abstract
Background: This computational analysis investigated sequence complementarities between the TRIM33 gene and human noncoding (nc)RNAs and characterized their interactions in the context of paraneoplastic dermatomyositis. Methods: TRIM33 FASTA sequence (NCBI Reference Sequence: NC_000001.11) was used for BLASTN analysis against Human GRCh38 in the [...] Read more.
Background: This computational analysis investigated sequence complementarities between the TRIM33 gene and human noncoding (nc)RNAs and characterized their interactions in the context of paraneoplastic dermatomyositis. Methods: TRIM33 FASTA sequence (NCBI Reference Sequence: NC_000001.11) was used for BLASTN analysis against Human GRCh38 in the Ensembl.org database. Retrieved ncRNAs showing hits to TRIM33 were searched in the GeneCards.org database and further analyzed through RNAInter, QmRLFS-finder, Spliceator, and NcPath enrichment analysis. Results: A total of 100 hits were found, involving the lncRNAs NNT-AS1, MKLN1-AS, LINC01206, and PAXBP1-AS1, whose dysregulation has been reported in either cancer or dermatomyositis. Additionally, the lncRNAs NNT-AS1 and PAXBP1-AS1 may interact with microRNA-142-3p, reducing its expression and increasing that of TRIM33. Sequence complementarity affected only TRIM33 intron 1, possibly resulting in alternatively spliced isoforms of TIF1γ with increased immunogenicity. The results also revealed nucleotide alignment between TRIM33 and the gene regulatory elements of 28 ncRNA genes involved in immune pathways. Conclusions: This pivotal study demonstrates sequence complementarity between TRIM33 and human ncRNAs dysregulated in cancer and dermatomyositis. This scenario may lead to the overproduction of more immunogenic TIF1γ variants in tumors and the stimulation of autoimmunity. Further experimental analyses using targeted methods such as Western blot or Chip-Seq are required to confirm these data. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Trends and Future Challenges in Rheumatology)
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11 pages, 269 KiB  
Article
Ultrasound Examination of Common Carotid Adventitial Thickness Can Differentiate Takayasu Arteritis and Large Vessel Giant Cell Arteritis
by Pierluigi Macchioni, Giuseppe Germanò, Nicolò Girolimetto, Giulia Klinowski, Letizia Gavioli, Francesco Muratore, Alessia Laneri, Caterina Ricordi, Chiara Marvisi, Luca Magnani and Carlo Salvarani
J. Pers. Med. 2024, 14(6), 627; https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm14060627 - 12 Jun 2024
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Abstract
Pathological studies have demonstrated that the adventitial layer is markedly thickened in Takayasu (TAK) as compared to large vessel giant cell arteritis (LV-GCA). An ultrasound (US) examination of the arterial vessels allows the determination of intima media thickness (IMT) and of adventitial layer [...] Read more.
Pathological studies have demonstrated that the adventitial layer is markedly thickened in Takayasu (TAK) as compared to large vessel giant cell arteritis (LV-GCA). An ultrasound (US) examination of the arterial vessels allows the determination of intima media thickness (IMT) and of adventitial layer thickness (extra media thickness (EMT)). No previous study has evaluated if there are differences in EMT thickness between TAK and LV-GCA. In this cross-sectional retrospective study of stored ultrasound (US) imaging, we have compared common carotid artery (CCA) EMT and IMT in a series of consecutive TAK and LV-GCA patients. US examination CCA IMT and EMT were significantly higher in TAK as compared to LV-GCA. With ROC curve analysis, we have found that an EMT > 0.76 mm has high sensitivity and specificity for TAK CCA examination. The percentage of CCA at EMT > 0.76 mm and the total arterial wall thickening were significantly higher in TAK group examinations. EMT thickness correlated with disease duration and IMT in the TAK group, as well as with the IMT and ESR values in the LV-GCA group. Upon multivariate logistic regression analysis, factors independently associated with TAK CCA were EMT > 0.76 mm and age. No significant variation in IMT and EMT could be demonstrated in subsequent US CCA examinations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Trends and Future Challenges in Rheumatology)
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