The present invention relates to methods of diagnosing an inflammatory disorder in a patient, as well as methods of monitoring the progression of an inflammatory disorder and/or methods of monitoring a treatment protocol of a therapeutic agent or regimen. The invention also relates to assay methods used in connection with the diagnostic methods described herein.

Provided herein is a method of treating bone resorption associated with osteoclastic activity in a subject in need thereof. The method includes reducing the level of FMS intracellular fragments (FICDs) in the subject.

Disclosed herein are methods for treating subjects having rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with a human anti-interleukin 6 (IL-6) antibody, or antigen-binding portion thereof.

Compositions and methods useful for the diagnosis and treatment of juvenile idiopathic arthritis are disclosed.

The present invention relates to a marker composition for diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis, comprising angiotensinogen (ACT) as a marker, a method for providing information necessary to determine the occurrence of rheumatoid arthritis using the marker composition, a composition for determining the occurrence of rheumatoid arthritis, comprising an agent for measurement of the expression level of the marker, and a kit for determining the occurrence of rheumatoid arthritis, comprising a device for measurement of the expression level of the marker. The method for providing information for use in determining the occurrence of rheumatoid arthritis provided by the present invention can be widely utilized to determine the occurrence of various joint diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis since it is possible to measure the expression levels of proteins of which the expression levels are changed at the time of the occurrence of rheumatoid arthritis, and to more objectively and accurately determine the occurrence of rheumatoid arthritis when the method is used.

The present disclosure relates to the use of anti-PAD4 autoantibodies as a clinical biomarker for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment. The disclosure further provides an assay to detect anti-PAD4 autoantibodies, assay kits for the detection of anti-PAD4 autoantibodies, as well as computer implemented diagnostic methods.

The present invention provides a method for predicting whether a patient having, suspected of having, or at risk of developing an inflammatory condition will respond to treatment with a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) comprising measuring the level of at least one specialized pro-resolving mediator (SPM) in a DMARD naïve patient sample and classifying the patient as a predicted DMARD responder or a predicted DMARD non-responder. The present invention also provides a method of assessing the efficacy of a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) for use in the treatment of an inflammatory condition in a patient. The present invention also provides a method of predicting which rheumatoid arthritis pathotype a patient having, suspected of having, or at risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis will develop.

Methods, kits, and active ingredients for diagnosing or treating arthritis or a degenerative disease of the skeletal system, or for selection of subjects for therapy. The methods for diagnosing arthritis involve the detection of an autoantibody, which is associated with arthritis, or excluding the presence of an autoantibody against collagen II. The methods for diagnosing a degenerative disease of the skeletal system, involve the detection of an autoantibody against thrombospondin-4 or COMP. The kits contain a detection agent for an autoantibody and can be used for diagnosing arthritis or a degenerative disease of the skeletal system. The active ingredient can be used for treating or preventing autoimmune-associated arthritis.

Assays and methods for diagnosing and treating autoimmune diseases. Particularly, the invention provides methods for differential diagnosis of specific autoimmune diseases, including autoimmune rheumatic disorders.

Disclosed herein are methods of treating a subject with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and methods of predicting the subject's likelihood of responding to a new RA therapy. The methods include administering to the subject a composition comprising a macrophage targeting construct and an imaging moiety conjugated thereto to acquiring planar images of a plurality of joints of the subject, and determining at least one TUV.sub.Global value for the subject from the planar images. Covariates comprising the quantification of serological RA markers and/or clinical assessments may be further obtained to apply statistical modeling to the combination of the at least one TUV.sub.Global and the one or more covariates. The statistical modeling is used to determine a likelihood of response to an RA therapy, and a treatment is administered to the subject based on the likelihood of response to the RA therapy.