Role of serum survivin as a predictor of response to biological treatment in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Abstract Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory disorder characterised by synovial hypertrophy, proliferation, and pannus formation encroaching on articular structures resulting in uncontrolled spread of joint destruction. Survivin is an anti-apoptotic protein that plays an important role in tissue growth and tumour development. The objective of this research is to study the role of Survivin as a predictor of treatment response to anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) in RA patients who had failure of conventional disease modifying anti rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) treatment. Results All patients had active RA evaluated with DAS 28 activity score: 73.3% of them had high disease activity, while 22.7% were in moderate activity. Serum survivin level ranged from 725 pg/ml to 2750 pg/ml. Its level was significantly higher in patients than in controls with a p value of < 0.001. After receiving anti-TNF treatment for 3 months, serum survivin level was reassessed, and it ranged from 525 pg/ml to 2100 pg/ml. There was a significant decreased in the biomarker serum level after receiving the treatment when compared to its level before starting treatment. Conclusion Our results showed that the assessment of serum survivin may be a useful diagnostic tool for detection of RA patients also it has a valuable predictive value in assessment of responce to biologic treatments given to the patients. This conclusion was reached after detection of high survivin levels in the sera of RA with high disease activity and reduced functional outcomes. Moreover, the biomarker has a good prognostic value in detection of response to biologic treatment indicated by the reduction of serum level after receiving the treatment and improvement of clinical disease activity.