Micro-RNAs in inflammatory arthritis: From physiopathology to diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic opportunities

Abstract : Micro-RNAs are an area of research exponentially expanding over the past years. These small sequences of 20-22 nucleotides have a strong role as post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression. Inflammatory arthritis pa-thophysiology involves various key players from innate to adaptive immunity, as well as various signalling pathways of inflammation. In this review, we discuss how micro-RNAs are involved in rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and juvenile inflammatory arthritis, from pre-clinical phases to established diseases. We describe mi-RNAs key roles in fibroblast like synoviocytes migration, proliferation, apoptosis and cytokine production, in macrophages polarization, as well as in B cells and T cell proliferation and differentiation, with a special emphasis on Treg/Th17 imbalance. We finally discuss the application of these findings in pre-clinical models and highlight opportunities and limits of a therapeutic approach using mi-RNAs agonists or antagonists.