Prediction of Response to Certolizumab Pegol Treatment by Functional MRI of the Brain
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2020-01-10
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
By using functional MRI the investigators have recently shown that TNFi elicit rapid changes
in brain function linked to the perception of RA [5]. Functional MRI represents a method
allowing detecting tiny changes in neuronal activity by measuring alterations of blood flow
in the context of neuronal activation. TNFi rapidly reversed the widespread activation of
brain centers involved in pain such as the thalamus and the somatosensoric cortex, as well as
those involved in the control, of mood and emotions such as the limbic system. Moreover, as
small phase I study with 10 patients with RA showed that high brain activity detected in the
functional MRI predicts clinical response to Certolizumab Pegol after 1 month, suggesting the
central nervous system activity may be used as a tool to predict response to TNFi [8]. The
rationale of this study is to test whether response to TNFi can be predicted by using
functional MRI.