A biomarker for Takayasu's disease

It was found that PTX3 levels are more accurate than CRP levels or ESR for detecting disease

 activity in selected patients with known Takayasu arteritis activity. Further studies confirming the data in a broader spectrum of patients with unknown or equivocal disease activity are needed before this marker can be used routinely as a biomarker in the clinical or research settings. Pentraxins are another possible biomarker. Pentraxins are a superfamily of proteins that are highly conserved in evolution, recognize a wide range of exogenous pathogenic substances, alter self molecules, and behave as acute-phase proteins. They are categorized as short and long pentraxins on the basis of their primary structure. C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid P are classic short pentraxins produced in the liver. Pentraxin-3 (PTX3) is a prototype of the long pentraxins. Innate immunity cells (most notably, dendritic cells and macrophages) and vascular cells produce PTX3 in response to proinflammatory signals and Toll-like receptor engagement. Pentraxin-3 plays a nonredundant role in the recognition of selected pathogens, activates the complement system, regulates cell proliferation and angiogenesis, and participates in the formation of the cumulus oophorus. This protein is synthesized locally at sites of inflammation, and increased levels are associated with vascular inflammation in different diseases affecting blood vessels; increased levels have been observed in the serum of patients with small-vessel vasculitis and in the synovial fluid of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. In future we may depending more on this marker to assess the active nature of the disease.