Rheumatoid Arthritis
Drs. Jack Cush & Arthur Kavanaugh, two of rheumatology’s most trusted voices, provide a breakdown of the latest breakthroughs and hottest topics in rheumatology from the 2025 ACR Convergence meeting in Chicago.
Here's the last installment of our "ACR Best" abstracts as chosen by the RheumNow faculty. Most of these were from the final, day 4, but a few were noteworthy holdovers from day 3. Enjoy!
Promising novel mechanisms of action always create excitement, but the immune checkpoint PD-1 has cemented itself in the news far more than most. This fame is primarily from therapeutic inhibition in cancer and rheumatological inflammatory sequelae that emerge, but invoking the inverse and using PD-1 agonism to treat classical autoimmunity has subsequently been making its own mark. Given the evident plausibility, how do we feel about invoking
Dr. John Cush RheumNow
4 days 15 hours ago
From Fitbit to first diagnosis: AI is rewriting the RA playbook
Two studies presented at this year’s #ACR25 meeting highlight just how close we may be to a future where algorithms flag disease before we can and monitor activity with minimal patient burden. https://t.co/8AwBZkyZIW
Dr. John Cush RheumNow
4 days 16 hours ago
New Insights into Pregnancy Outcomes and Maternal-Fetal Health in Rheumatic Diseases
At #ACR25, the ACR presented new research illuminating critical challenges and advances in pregnancy outcomes for women living with rheumatic diseases, including axial spondyloarthritis, https://t.co/nJjtTMHnD3
David Liew drdavidliew
4 days 19 hours ago
Toxicity is the big question about CAR-T in RA - what did the CRS/ICANS profile look like in this German ph1 in RA?
Pretty good so far - but obviously will be under enormous scrutiny when we are looking at diseases with good existing therapies
#ACR25 ABST0471 @RheumNow https://t.co/xXyzOwLvx8
Akhil Sood MD, MS AkhilSoodMD
4 days 19 hours ago
LB23: Regulate-RA- ongoing Phase 1 trial of autologous CAR-Tregs in refractory RA (no lymphodepletion)
🔹 4/6 pts had ↓ DAS28-CRP by wk 4 with rapid onset & ↓ joint counts at dose level 2
🔹 Synovial biopsies to date showed ↓ inflammatory score post-tx
@RheumNow #ACR25 https://t.co/JMBbLIEmJG
Janet Pope Janetbirdope
4 days 19 hours ago
Will #PAD4 levels predict pts w #CCP positive #arthralgia who will develop #RA?
Leeds study - 79 at risk pts
PAD4 levels may predicting #rheumatoid #arthritis development
#ACR25 @RheumNow @ACRheum abst#832 https://t.co/dnAA6z3NJQ
At ACR Convergence 2025, abstract 1039 entitled, “Global Cost-Effectiveness and Equity in CAR-T Cell Therapy for Rheumatoid Arthritis” adds a critical dimension to the growing enthusiasm around cellular therapies in autoimmune disease.
Mike Putman EBRheum
5 days 12 hours ago
Meta analysis evaluating age specific incidence across multiple registries (n=882)
Incidence 9.3 for women & 1.4 for men per 100k person-years
1. Wider distribution than I would have guessed
2. Much less age-dependency for men
@RheumNow #ACR25 Abstr#29W06 https://t.co/46dNGBZ45V
Mike Putman EBRheum
5 days 12 hours ago
Phase 1 study of CAR-Treg in difficult to treat RA
4/6 pts had 50% reduction in TJC/SJC, no CYC/fludrabine required & good prelim safety data
CAR-T remains exciting, but less of the "totally magical everyone cured" stuff we saw w/initial CAR-T reports
@RheumNow #ACR25 https://t.co/kjBIkLCYpF
Mike Putman EBRheum
5 days 12 hours ago
"Achieving good control of joint disease activity is probably the key objective of treatment of patients with RA-ILD"
- Gregory McDermott (Epi Abstracts, #2662)
Totally agree with this! SARD guidelines recommendingn drugs with mediocre activity in RA was surprising
@RheumNow
Poster Hall