Increased Extracellular ATP in Plasma of Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Activates CD8+T Cells

Archana Tripathy; Prasanta Padhan; Nitish Swain; Sunil K Raghav; Bhawna Gupta

doi:10.1016/j.arcmed.2020.12.010

Increased Extracellular ATP in Plasma of Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Activates CD8⁺T Cells

Arch Med Res. 2021 May;52(4):423-433. doi: 10.1016/j.arcmed.2020.12.010. Epub 2021 Feb 1.

Authors

Archana Tripathy¹, Prasanta Padhan², Nitish Swain¹, Sunil K Raghav³, Bhawna Gupta⁴

Affiliations

¹ Disease Biology Laboratory, School of Biotechnology, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
² Department of Rheumatology, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
³ Laboratory of Immuno-Genomics and Systems Biology, Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
⁴ Disease Biology Laboratory, School of Biotechnology, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. Electronic address: bhawna.gupta@kiitbiotech.ac.in.

PMID: 33541740
DOI: 10.1016/j.arcmed.2020.12.010

Abstract

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disorder with genetic and environmental causes often linked with the disease etiology. A disrupted metabolism has often been a characteristic of RA and an altered metabolic state of immune cells has been associated with their phenotypic and functional changes. The energy in the form of ATP produced by the metabolically active cells may thus initiate a cascade of immune responses there by influencing the disease pathogenesis or progression.

Aim of the study: Through this study we have focused on determining the role of ATP in etiology of RA and aberrant cellular functions.

Methods: Blood samples of 80 healthy controls (HC) and 95 RA patients were screened for extracellular ATP concentration, transcriptome analyses, an inflammatory mediator and the results were statistically analysed.

Results: In this study, ATP is shown to be excessive in the plasma of RA patients (453.5 ± 16.09% in RA vs. 233.9 ± 10.07% in HC, p <0.0001) and significantly increases with the disease severity. The abundant extracellular ATP could activate circulating cytotoxic CD8⁺T cells in RA patients to produce Granzyme B.

Conclusion: Plasma ATP is thus identified to have a significant potential in progression and prognosis of RA and may thus be studied further to design better therapeutic approaches for the disease.

Keywords: ATP; CD8(+)T cells; Prognostic marker; Rheumatoid arthritis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adenosine Triphosphate
Arthritis, Rheumatoid* / blood
CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes
Humans
Plasma
Severity of Illness Index

Substances

Adenosine Triphosphate