The identification of novel, yet easily measurable biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress might assist in the diagnosis and management of patients with rheumatic diseases (RDs). We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies investigating the circulating concentrations of bilirubin, the end product of heme metabolism and a potent endogenous antioxidant with anti-inflammatory properties, in patients with RDs and healthy controls. The electronic databases PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched from inception to 31 December 2023 for relevant articles. We evaluated the risk of bias and the certainty of evidence using the Joanna Briggs Checklist and the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation Working Group system, respectively. In 17 eligible studies, all with low risk of bias, compared to controls, patients with RDs had significantly lower concentrations of total bilirubin (standard mean difference, SMD=-0.68, 95% CI -0.91 to -0.44, p<0.001; I2 = 92.5%, p<0.001; low certainty of evidence), direct (conjugated) bilirubin (SMD=-0.67, 95% CI -0.92 to -0.41, p<0.001; I2 = 81.7%, p<0.001; very low certainty of evidence), and the active antioxidant and anti-inflammatory indirect (unconjugated) form of bilirubin (SMD=-0.71, 95% CI -1.18 to -0.24, p=0.003; I2 = 95.1%, p<0.001; very low certainty of evidence). The results of the meta-analysis were stable in sensitivity analysis. In meta-regression, there were no significant associations between the SMD of total bilirubin and several clinical and demographic characteristics, including age, male to female ratio, number of participants, liver enzymes and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. In subgroup analysis, the SMD of total bilirubin was significant across a range of RDs, including rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, primary Sjögren syndrome, and myositis. Therefore, the results of our systematic review and meta-analysis suggests that the reductions in bilirubin concentrations observed in patients with RDs reflect a state of impaired antioxidant and anti-inflammatory defence due to bilirubin consumption and highlight the promising role of this endogenous product as a biomarker of RDs.
UNASSIGNED: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier CRD42023500649.

Systemic autoinflammatory diseases (SAID) are a growing family of disorders of the innate immune system. Over the years, there have been changes in the definition, classification and nomenclature of SAID as new syndromes and pathophysiologic mechanisms continue to be described. Recognizing the clinical manifestations of SAID is important for their early diagnosis and management. The field continues to advance with potential new therapies underway.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) and cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (CAPS) are distinct clinical entities belonging to the autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases, respectively. The coexistence of the two entities has rarely been reported and is poorly characterized. Here, we described a case of a 38-year-old Japanese woman diagnosed with anti-centromere antibody-positive SSc and CAPS carrying the pathogenic mutation in the NLRP3 gene, with a detailed autoantibody profile by a high-throughput comprehensive protein array covering approximately 90% of the human transcriptome. The clinical manifestations of the patient were typical of both SSc and CAPS. Comprehensive autoantibody profiling identified 65 autoantibodies in the patient\'s serum and 78 autoantibodies in the serum of her daughter with CAPS, who carried the same NLRP3 mutation as the patient. SSc-associated autoantibodies (anti-DBT, anti- CENP-B, and anti-CENP-A) and anti-CD320 antibody were detected at high levels only in the patient\'s serum, while autoantibodies to the following four proteins were detected in the sera of both the patient and her daughter: TRIM21, LIMS1, CLIP4, and KAT2A. The TRRUST enrichment analysis identified NF-κB1 and RelA as overlapping key transcription factors that regulate the genes encoding proteins to which autoantibodies were detected in the patient and her daughter, therefore the autoantibody profile of the patient cannot be solely attributed to SSc, but may also be influenced by CAPS. Although autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases are considered to be at opposite ends of the immunological spectrum, detailed autoantibody profiling may reveal a unique immunological landscape in an overlapping case of the two entities.

Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) is sometimes considered a diagnosis of exclusion as the name signifies that no cause is evident for this form of arthritis. Despite this JIA has some classical clinical features and many categories are defined based on the phenotype. Since there is no diagnostic test for JIA, diseases that can mimic JIA, including Primary Immunodeficiencies (PID) can sometimes be misdiagnosed as JIA. The clues to suspecting PIDs are early age of onset, presence of family history, increased susceptibility to infections, unusual features like urticaria, interstitial lung disease, sensorineural hearing loss and poor response to conventional therapy, amongst others. This review will highlight the basics of PIDs and will discuss PIDs that can present with arthritis and hence can be confused with JIA.

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UNASSIGNED: Inflammation has been associated with an increased risk for cancer development, while innate immune system activation could counteract the risk for malignancies. Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a severe systemic inflammatory condition and also represents the archetype of innate immunity deregulation. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the risk for cancer development in FMF.
UNASSIGNED: The risk ratio (RR) for malignancies was separately compared between FMF patients and fibromyalgia subjects, Still\'s disease patients and Behçet\'s disease patients. Clinical variables associated with cancer development in FMF patients were searched through binary logistic regression.
UNASSIGNED: 580 FMF patients and 102 fibromyalgia subjects, 1012 Behçet\'s disease patients and 497 Still\'s disease patients were enrolled. The RR for the occurrence of malignant neoplasms was 0.26 (95% Confidence Interval [CI.] 0.10-0.73, p=0.006) in patients with FMF compared to fibromyalgia subjects; the RR for the occurrence of malignant cancer was 0.51 (95% CI. 0.23-1.16, p=0.10) in FMF compared to Still\'s disease and 0.60 (95% CI. 0.29-1.28, p=0.18) in FMF compared to Behçet\'s disease. At logistic regression, the risk of occurrence of malignant neoplasms in FMF patients was associated with the age at disease onset (β1 = 0.039, 95% CI. 0.001-0.071, p=0.02), the age at the diagnosis (β1 = 0.048, 95% CI. 0.039-0.085, p=0.006), the age at the enrolment (β1 = 0.05, 95% CI. 0.007-0.068, p=0.01), the number of attacks per year (β1 = 0.011, 95% CI. 0.001- 0.019, p=0.008), the use of biotechnological agents (β1 = 1.77, 95% CI. 0.43-3.19, p=0.009), the use of anti-IL-1 agents (β1 = 2.089, 95% CI. 0.7-3.5, p=0.002).
UNASSIGNED: The risk for cancer is reduced in Caucasic FMF patients; however, when malignant neoplasms occur, this is more frequent in FMF cases suffering from a severe disease phenotype and presenting a colchicine-resistant disease.

Tumor necrosis factor type 1A receptor-associated periodic syndrome (TRAPS) and cryopyrin-associated autoinflammatory syndrome (CAPS) are rare monogenic autoinflammatory diseases (AIDs) mainly caused by pathogenic variations in the TNFRSF1A and NLRP3 genes, respectively. Here, we describe a unique patient presenting with symptoms overlapping both TRAPS and CAPS, without known pathogenic variants in the respective genes. The patient harbored the p.Val200Met variation in NLRP3 and the p.Ser226Cys variation in TNFRSF1A, prompting us to delve deeper into the functional analysis due to conflicting or inconclusive pathogenicity interpretations of the variants across various databases. Molecular dynamics analysis of the p.Val200Met variation in NLRP3 revealed a rigid conformation in the helical domain 2 subdomain of the NACHT domain. This increased rigidity suggests a potential mechanism by which this variation supports the assembly of the NLRP3 inflammasome. Notably, the patient\'s peripheral mononuclear blood cells demonstrated an elevated IL-1β response upon lipopolysaccharides (LPS) induction. Subsequent initiation of anti-IL-1β therapy resulted in a significant alleviation of the patient\'s symptoms, further supporting our hypothesis. We interpret these findings as suggestive of a potential pathophysiological role for the NLPR3 p.Val200Met variation in shaping the patient\'s clinical phenotype, which was also supported by clinical and genetic analysis of the family. This case underscores the complexity of the genetic landscape in AIDs and highlights the value of combining family genetic and functional data to refine the understanding and management of such challenging cases.

BACKGROUND: Systemic autoinflammatory disorders (SAIDs) represent a growing spectrum of diseases characterized by dysregulation of the innate immune system. The most common pediatric autoinflammatory fever syndrome, Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, Adenitis (PFAPA), has well defined clinical diagnostic criteria, but there is a subset of patients who do not meet these criteria and are classified as undefined autoinflammatory diseases (uAID). This project, endorsed by PRES, supported by the EMERGE fellowship program, aimed to analyze the evolution of symptoms in recurrent fevers without molecular diagnosis in the context of undifferentiated AIDs, focusing on PFAPA and syndrome of undifferentiated recurrent fever (SURF), using data from European AID registries.
METHODS: Data of patients with PFAPA, SURF and uSAID were collected from 3 registries including detailed epidemiological, demographic and clinical data, results of the genetic testing and additional laboratory investigations with retrospective application of the modified Marshall and PRINTO/Eurofever classification criteria on the cohort of PFAPA patients and preliminary SURF criteria on uSAID/SURF patients.
RESULTS: Clinical presentation of PFAPA is variable and some patients did not fit the conventional PFAPA criteria and exhibit different symptoms. Some patients did not meet the criteria for either PFAPA or SURF, highlighting the heterogeneity within these groups. The study also explored potential overlaps between PFAPA and SURF/uAID, revealing that some patients exhibited symptoms characteristic of both conditions, emphasizing the need for more precise classification criteria.
CONCLUSIONS: Patients with recurrent fevers without molecular diagnoses represent a clinically heterogeneous group. Improved classification criteria are needed for both PFAPA and SURF/uAID to accurately identify and manage these patients, ultimately improving clinical outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: The study is aimed to evaluate the impact of safety events in the Eurofever registry for Autoinflammatory diseases.
METHODS: This was a retrospective and longitudinal observational multicentre study. Data were retrieved from the international registry Eurofever, starting patients\' enrolment since 2009. All moderate, severe, or very severe AEs reported by treating physician in Eurofever were analyzed regardless of a possible suspected causal relationship to any therapies and according to the latest release of the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities.
RESULTS: Complete information on safety were available in 2464 patients enrolled in the registry. In 1499 of them retrospective data encompassing the period from disease onset to enrolment were available, whereas 965 consecutive patients entered in the longitudinal part of the study. A total of 479 AEs have been reported in 275 patients. Eighty-two AEs were reported as serious and 99 were drug-related according to the physicians. Infections or infestations (94; 19.6%), gastrointestinal disorders (66; 13.8%), nervous system disorders (41; 8.6%) and systemic disorders or administration site reactions (35; 7.3%) were the most frequent reported events. The highest absolute number of drug-related AEs were related to biologic DMARDs (40/99 reports, 40,4%) and colchicine (31/99 reports, 31.3%).
CONCLUSIONS: Present study shows the importance of a longitudinal and homogeneous registration of the AEs in rare conditions, with a particular focus on the safety profile of the treatments used in these conditions.

Az autoinflammatio a természetes (innate) immunitás zavara, mely veleszületett, monogénes vagy szerzett lehet. A monogénes autoinflammatoricus kórképek közé tartoznak az inflammasomopathiák, az actinopathiák, az endoplazmatikus reticulum stresszt okozó mutációk, az NFκB-hez társult betegségek, az interferonopathiák, az endogén antagonisták génjeinek mutációi és a DADA2. A szerzett autoinflammatoricus betegségek közé számos gyulladásos reumatológiai kórképet, bél-, bőr- és csontbetegséget, valamint egyéb kórképeket (például VEXAS, IgG4-gyel társult betegség, recurrens pericarditis, 2-es típusú diabetes, interstitialis tüdőbetegség) sorolhatunk. Ebben az összefoglalóban áttekintjük az autoinflammatio koncepcióját és főbb mechanizmusait, a legfontosabb monogénes és szerzett autoinflammatoricus kórképeket, az immundeficientiák autoinflammatióban játszott szerepét, valamint a szóba jövő terápiás lehetőségeket. Orv Hetil. 2024; 165(18): 683–697.