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Genetics

Sodium Channels, Carbemazepine and Osteoarthritis Progression

A study published in Nature suggests that therapies affecting sodium channels could be employed to treat osteoarthritis.



Osteoarthritis (OA) affects 528 million people worldwide and yet there are no uniformly effective treatments - other than joint replacement.  The ideal

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SLE: A Mutated Gene and TLR7 Overexpression

EurekAlert!

A group of researchers lead by Min Ae Lee-Kirsch from the Department of Pediatrics, Medical Faculty, TUD Dresden University of Technology (Germany), studied four patients from two families who developed symptoms of SLE in the first years of life. As familial occurrence of SLE in young

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Heritability of Osteoarthritis

A Swedish study examine the genetic contribution to various rheumatic/musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) and showed that osteoarthritis (OA) had a large heritability compared with other RMDs.

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New Year's Resolutions (1.5.2024)

Dr. Jack Cush imparts his new New Year's Resolutions for 2024 and also reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com.

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Best of 2023: LAVLI - A New Autoinflammatory Disorder

NIH researchers have have described a novel autoinflammatory disorder called "Lyn kinase-associated vasculopathy and liver fibrosis" (LAVLI), based on a mutation in the LYN gene (that encodes the Lyn kinase protein). They discovered that increased Lyn kinase activity promotes

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Rheumatology Roundup - ACR 2023

Drs. Jack Cush and Arthur Kavanaugh discuss highlights and key takeaways from ACR 23.

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Anakinra Effective in Systemic JIA, Irrespective of HLA-DRB1 and IL1RN Variants

A prospective study of first line use anakinra in systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) proved to be effective and without potentially allergic lung reactions.

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Advice on Multi-Drug Failures in RA

What’s your next best approach to the rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patient who has failed several DMARDs and biologics?  In such cases you have to either reconsider the diagnosis (especially if seronegative) or reach into your bag of tricks.  



As many of us struggle with

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RheumNow Podcast with Special Guest Dr. Michael Weinblatt (9.22.2023)

Dr. Jack Cush is joined by Dr. Michael Weinblatt as they discuss this weeks news and journal reports, including difficult RA, HLA typing and abatacept responses and new regulatory decisions. 





  1. UCB has issued a press update on its pending application for the approval of

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RheumNow Podcast – with Special Guest Dr. Janet Pope (9.8.2023)

This week, Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news with special guest, Dr. Janet Pope. They discuss "Not-non-Inferior", large scale genetic screening, Zoster risk w/ newer lupus drugs, tapering, RA referral problems and the TNR webinar session on "ORAL Surveillance Revisited".

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ICYMI: LAVLI - A New Autoinflammatory Disorder

NIH researchers have have described a novel autoinflammatory disorder called "Lyn kinase-associated vasculopathy and liver fibrosis" (LAVLI), based on a mutation in the LYN gene (that encodes the Lyn kinase protein). They discovered that increased Lyn kinase activity promotes

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What is Colchicine Worth? (6.23.2023)

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and reports from the past week on RheumNow.com. This week a new colchicine FDA approval, rising rate of IgG4 related disease and what's the safest biologic?





  1. An RCT of 1136 newly COVID test positive pts compared long term outcomes if

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LAVLI - A New Autoinflammatory Disorder

NIH researchers have have described a novel autoinflammatory disorder called "Lyn kinase-associated vasculopathy and liver fibrosis" (LAVLI), based on a mutation in the LYN gene (that encodes the Lyn kinase protein). They discovered that increased Lyn kinase activity promotes

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Geo-epidemiology of Autoantibodies in Rheumatoid Arthritis

A multinational study of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients shows a variety of post-translationally modified anti-modified protein antibodies (AMPA). While AMPA differed in different ethnic populations, their levels correlated with total serum IgG.

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Half the Experts are Wrong (2.17.2023)

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and tries to stump the expert panel this week on the podcast.

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Burnout #10 (2.3.2023)

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the past week of news on RheumNow.com.

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VEXAS may be more common than expected

A great study of a recently described rheumatologic/hematologic disorder VEXAS (vacuoles, E1-ubiquitin-activating enzyme, X-linked, autoinflammatory, somatic) syndrome recently appeared in JAMA, describing the frequency and presentations of UBA1 variant. 

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Multi-ancestry analysis reveals novel genetic loci associated with Osteoarthritis

The first large multi-ancestry genetics study of osteoarthritis (OA) has found 10 novel OA-associated genetic loci, and results showed some of the OA-associated regions are robustly found in every population ancestry studied. 

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Pregnancy Outcomes with Belimumab

Pregnancy in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is fraught with problems of adverse pregnancy outcomes, more pregnancy loss and birth defects. Now a study of SLE pregnancies exposed to belimumab (BEL) shows and expected rate of pregnancy loss but a variable rate of birth defects.



Data

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CRTAC1- a Novel Biomarker for Osteoarthritis

EurekAlert!

Scientists at deCODE genetics a subsidiary of Amgen report in Arthritis & Rheumatology that a novel plasma protein (cartilage acidic protein-1; CRTAC1) is a potential biomarker of osteoarthritis (OA) through its association with OA risk and progression to joint replacement.

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Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Need to Quit Smoking ASAP

While it is known that smoking ups the risk of developing RA, its effect on outcomes in those with established rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is less known.  A report from an early arthritis registry shows that current smoking increases disease activity and lowers health-related quality of

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Heavy Metal Rheumatology (9.23.2022)

Below are this week’s highlights from RheumNow, as discussed by Dr. Jack Cush. Thanks to all of you for your kind comments and great reviews of our weekly podcast. Please let us know how we can improve by emailing me or recording your suggestion using the "Ask Cush Anything" link on our

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Genetic Testing for Autoinflammatory Disease

Not all patients with periodic fevers fit neatly into diagnostic categories. Some can be diagnosed as Still’s disease (based on criteria) while others can be classified as autoinflammatory diseases (AID) and some may be unclassifiable, clinically or genetically.

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EULAR/ACR Classification in MDA5+ Myositis Patients

The diagnosis of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs) can be informed by the 2017 EULAR/ACR classification criteria, but their utility in patients with clinically amyopathic dermatomyositis (CADM) and anti–melanoma differentiation–associated protein 5 (anti–MDA-5)–positive

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STING/IFN Activation Promotes ANCA-Associated Vasculitis Progression

Research presented in the Journal of Experimental Medicine shows that ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) may be propagated by pathogenic mechanisms triggering cGAS/STING/IRF3-dependent IFN-I release.

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