Role of serum survivin as a predictor of response to biological treatment in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Abstract Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory disorder characterised by synovial hypertrophy, proliferation, and pannus formation encroaching on articular structures resulting in uncontrolled spread of joint destruction. Survivin is an anti-apoptotic protein that plays an important role in tissue growth and tumour development. The objective of this research is to study the role of Survivin as a predictor of treatment response to anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) in RA patients who had failure of conventional disease modifying anti rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) treatment. Results All patients had active RA evaluated with DAS 28 activity score: 73.3% of them had high disease activity, while 22.7% were in moderate activity. Serum survivin level ranged from 725 pg/ml to 2750 pg/ml. Its level was significantly higher in patients than in controls with a p value of