Recently, Professor Wei Wei’s team at our university published an online research paper entitled PU.1 promotes development of rheumatoid arthritis via repressing FLT3 in macrophages and fibroblast-like synoviocytes in the internationally-renowned academic journal Annals of Rheumatology Diseases (IF=27.973). All the researches concerning this achievement have been completed at Anhui Medical University. Associate Professor Tu Jiajie, from Institute of Clinical Pharmacology of AHMU and Key Laboratory of Anti-inflammatory and Immune drugs of the Ministry of Education, Master student Chen Weile, and Doctoral student Fang Yilong are the co-first authors, Professor Wei Wei the corresponding author. The study has been supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Professor Wei Wei’s team have long been committed to the research of RA pathogenesis as well as its drug research and development. In recent years, researchers have used in vitro and in vivo experimental techniques and methods, such as PU.1-knockdown mice, FLT3-ITD (with FLT3 activation) mice, and RA mice model combined with PU.1 inhibitors, to discover for the first time that the PU.1-FLT3 axis promotes the occurrence and development of RA by simultaneously acting on two important cells in the joint synovium, which are macrophages and fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS). The research team has also found for the first time that PU. 1 inhibitors can significantly alleviate arthritis symptoms in two classic RA mice models. The specific role of PU.1 in various key cells in RA provides new ideas and therapeutic targets for the pathological mechanism and drug discovery of RA. The follow-up systematic in-depth research and innovative drug research and development are in progress.
Link to the paper:https://ard.bmj.com/content/early/2022/10/12/ard-2022-222708.long