Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the one of the most common causes of disability in children. It is defined by arthritis developing in one or more joints in kids under the age of 16.  The factors influencing its onset and continuation are largely unknown.  Many practitioners use adult therapies in pediatric patients due to a lack of specific, tested treatment protocols and drugs made for kids and their developing immune systems.  

The “Trial of Early Aggressive Therapy in JIA”, also known as the TREAT study, is ongoing across the country under the direction of lead Principal Investigator Carol Wallace of Seattle Children’s Hospital and the University of Washington.  The study aims to induce and maintain a state of inactive disease in kids with JIA.  

But inducing clinical control is only part of the picture.  Not everyone responds the same way to the same therapies or treatment strategies.  In order to better serve patients and give them the best quality of life, researchers at the Arizona Arthritis Center are making a significant contribution to the TREAT study.  

Thanks to a recently funded NIH-sponsored study, Dr. Salvatore Albani, Director of the Center, the Charles A.L. and Suzanne M. Stephens Chair in Rheumatology Research, and Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, at the University of Arizona will begin dissecting JIA.  Using samples collected by colleagues in the TREAT study, the Albani Lab and collaborator Nora Singer of Case Medical Center and the Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio will examine the differences between active and inactive disease states at a molecular level.  The significance of this work is multi-layered: it is focusing on an under-studied population; it has the possibility of identifying new markers that could be used as standardized tests for detecting disease presence and level of activity; it will lay the framework for understanding which current tests are worthwhile in the clinical setting; and it could yield important information on the pathogenesis of not only this disease, but other diseases involving autoimmunity.

For more information about the Arizona Arthritis Center and its research, visit its website or call (520)-626-4206.