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Arthritis and Immunology Research Program

Michael Centola, Ph.D. Assistant Member, Arthritis and Immunology Research Program Director, OMRF Microarray Research Facility Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology,   University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Mentoring Faculty Member, Oklahoma Center for Neuroscience

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a debilitating autoimmune disease affecting 1% of the United States.  The long-term prognosis is poor, principally because there is no cure.  Several breakthrough treatments have been recently introduced.  These new drugs, called biologics, dramatically reduce symptoms in most patients and slow the disease's progressive disability.  Surprisingly, there are no objective criteria for the use of biologics, so patients who could benefit from therapy may not receive it.  Also, these drugs are not without side effects.  They suppress the immune system and can lead to increased susceptibility to infection.  Without scientifically sound criteria, those that do not need these therapies may be taking them unnecessarily.

The majority of biologics work by blocking hormone-like molecules called cytokines that allow cells of the immune system to communicate and coordinate their attack of joints in RA patients.  Dozens of different cytokines work together in a complex network.  Our lab has developed technology that measures 20 of these cytokines in patients' blood in a single test.  In ongoing clinical trials, we correlate these measurements to clinical activity and therapeutic response.  In this way we have helped to establish criteria to guide the use of biologics and are developing a real-world test that can be used by physicians.  This work was done by a multidisciplinary team of scientists in our lab with expertise in autoimmune disease, biochemistry, molecular biology, statistics, robotics, computer science, and engineering.  It was also done in collaboration with local physicians at the McBride clinic, Deaconess Hospital, the Oklahoma Arthritis Clinic, as well as other clinical researchers world-wide.  This work will improve patients' quality of life, help physicians with difficult decisions, and reduce costs of treatment.

Our lab also uses a technology called "gene expression profiling", which measures the levels of nearly all 23,000 human genes simultaneously.  Using this technology we recently identified a gene that appears to be a key cause of disease in RA patients.  We are characterizing the action of this gene and its effects in RA, and we are working to develop drugs that can block its activity.