Identification and Evaluation of Serum Protein Biomarkers That Differentiate Psoriatic Arthritis From Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objective To identify serum protein biomarkers that might distinguish patients with early inflammatory arthritis (IA) with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) from those with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and may be used to support appropriate early intervention. Methods The serum proteome of patients with PsA and patients with RA was interrogated using nano-liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (nano-LC-MS/MS) (n = 64 patients), an aptamer-based assay (SomaScan) targeting 1,129 proteins (n = 36 patients), and a multiplexed antibody assay (Luminex) for 48 proteins (n = 64 patients). Multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) assays were developed to evaluate the performance of putative markers using the discovery cohort (n = 60 patients) and subsequently an independent cohort of PsA and RA patients (n = 167). Results Multivariate machine learning analysis of the protein discovery data from the 3 platforms revealed that it was possible to differentiate PsA patients from RA patients with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.94 for nano-LC-MS/MS, 0.69 for bead-based immunoassay measurements, and 0.73 for aptamer-based analysis. Subsequently, in the separate verification and evaluation studies, random forest models revealed that a subset of proteins measured by MRM could differentiate PsA and RA patients with AUCs of 0.79 and 0.85, respectively. Conclusion We present a serum protein biomarker panel that can separate patients with early-onset IA with PsA from those with RA. With continued evaluation and refinement using additional and larger patient cohorts, including those with other arthropathies, we suggest that the panel identified here could contribute to improved clinical decision making.

Automated summary

Analysis of serum proteins using different technical platforms can differentiate patients with early inflammatory arthritis with psoriatic arthritis from those with rheumatoid arthritis. Subsequent validation studies confirmed a subset of proteins measured by multiple reaction monitoring can effectively differentiate PsA and RA patients.