Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a heterogeneous syndrome of which a subset of patients develops vascular inflammation. The genetic determinants that confer risk for rheumatoid vasculitis are not known, but patients with vascular complications are known to have an expansion of CD4+CD28null T cells, a cell population potentially involved in endothelial damage. CD4+CD28null T cell clones isolated from RA patients with vasculitis were found to express killer cell immunoglobulin–like receptors (KIRs) with the stimulatory KIR2DS2 often present in the absence of opposing inhibitory receptors with related specificities. To test the hypothesis that the KIR2DS2 gene is involved in the development of vasculitis, association studies were performed. The KIR2DS2 gene was significantly enriched among patients with rheumatoid vasculitis compared with normal individuals (odds ratio 5.56, P = 0.001) and patients with RA but no vasculitis (odds ratio 7.96, P = 0.001). Also, the distribution of human histocompatibility leukocyte antigen (HLA)-C, the putative ligand for KIRs, was significantly different in patients with rheumatoid vasculitis in comparison with the control populations. These data suggest that HLA class I–recognizing receptors and HLA class I genes are genetic risk determinants that modulate the pattern of RA expression. Specifically, KIR2DS2 in conjunction with the appropriate HLA-C ligand may have a role in vascular damage by regulating CD4+CD28null T cells.

Significant barriers, such as lack of professional guidelines, specialized training for interpretation of pharmacogenomics (PGx) data, and insufficient evidence to support clinical utility, prevent preemptive PGx testing from being widely clinically implemented. The current study, as a pilot project for the Right Drug, Right Dose, Right Time-Using Genomic Data to Individualize Treatment Protocol, was designed to evaluate the impact of preemptive PGx and to optimize the workflow in the clinic setting. We used an 84-gene next-generation sequencing panel that included SLCO1B1, CYP2C19, CYP2C9, and VKORC1 together with a custom-designed CYP2D6 testing cascade to genotype the 1013 subjects in laboratories approved by the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act. Actionable PGx variants were placed in patient's electronic medical records where integrated clinical decision support rules alert providers when a relevant medication is ordered. The fraction of this cohort carrying actionable PGx variant(s) in individual genes ranged from 30% (SLCO1B1) to 79% (CYP2D6). When considering all five genes together, 99% of the subjects carried an actionable PGx variant(s) in at least one gene. Our study provides evidence in favor of preemptive PGx testing by identifying the risk of a variant being present in the population we studied.

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