Autoreactivity Versus Autoimmunity: Characteristics of Autoantigen‐Specific CD4 T Cells in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Health
Authors' conclusion
In RA, CD4 T cell autoreactivity is characterized by a surface phenotype that suggests in vivo activation and the potential to acquire cytotoxic capacity, whereas healthy autoreactivity demonstrates naivety.
Study context
- Population
- HLA-DRB1 04:01-positive healthy controls (HCs), patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at different disease stages and at-risk individuals, UK early arthritis cohort
- Participants
- 9 / 17 / 13 / 6
- Comparison
- Cit-peptide-specific CD4 T cells in HCs vs RA vs at-risk individuals
- HCsn = 9reference
- Pretreatment RAn = 17
- RA receiving treatmentn = 13
- At-riskn = 6
- Outcome
- Autoreactive (cit-peptide-specific) CD4 T cell frequency and phenotype, focus on memory CD4 T cell compartment
Methodological detailsMHC II peptide tetramers, spectral flow cytometry
- MHC II peptide tetramers
- Spectral flow cytometry
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- No statistically significant difference in autoreactive T cell frequency between comparator groups
- In HCs, autoreactive T cells more likely to be naive
- In early pretreatment RA, autoreactive memory T cells showed down-regulation of CD27 and CD28 and expression of CX3CR1, features linked to CD4 cytotoxicity
- Proportion of CD27-negative autoreactive cells decreased following treatment
- RA-associated features evident in some at-risk donors before RA onset
Original publication
Autoreactivity Versus Autoimmunity: Characteristics of Autoantigen‐Specific CD4 T Cells in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Health. Arthritis Rheumatol. Published 1 June 2026. doi:10.
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