The clinical value of serum sirtuin-1 in the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis: a pilot study

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Cell biology studies, animal models and other data suggest a role for sirtuin-1 in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We hypothesized the clinical significance of serum sirtuin-1 in this disease.

Methods: Serum was obtained from 141 RA patients, 144 non-RA patients and 88 healthy controls. Sirtuin-1, anti-mutant citrulline vimentin antibody (anti-MCV), anti-cyclic citrulline polypeptide antibody (anti-CCP), rheumatoid factor and C-reactive protein were measured by immunological methods, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate was determined by the Westergren method.

Results: All markers were higher in the RA group than in the non-RA group and the healthy control group (P < 0.01). The specificity of sirtuin-1 for the diagnosis of RA was 97% (the highest among all markers), sensitivity was 71%. In ROC curve analysis, the AUCs (95% CI) of sirtuin-1, anti-CCP and anti-MCV were 0.87 (0.82–0.91), 0.91 (0.88–0.94) and 0.92 (0.89–0.95) respectively (all p < 0.01). The combination of sirtuin-1and anti-MCV gave the highest Youden index of 0.79, whilst Cox regression showed sirtuin-1 and rheumatoid factor were the strongest independent predictors of RA.

Conclusions: Serum sirtuin-1 is increased in RA, and may have a place is the diagnosis of this disease when combined with other markers.

KEYWORDS:

• Rheumatoid arthritis
• sirtuin 1
• anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies
• anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin antibodies
• rheumatoid factor

Disclosure statement

Authors declared no interest conflict.

Additional information

Funding

This work was kindly supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China under Grant (81760382), the Science and Technology Plan of Jiangxi Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission (20181073), the Youth Science Foundation of Jiangxi Science and Technology Department (20202BABL216027) and the project from Education Department of Jiangxi Province (GJJ190123).