Monocyte gene expression in adult-onset Still's disease

Adult-onset Still’s disease (AOSD) is a rare autoinflammatory disease, characterized by fever, rash, arthritis and other systemic inflammatory manifestations like hepatosplenomegaly and serositis. One of the most serious complications AOSD is macrophage activation syndrome (MAS), a life-threatening condition caused by excessive activation of immune system and a cytokine storm. Clinical features of MAS include continuous high fever, hepatosplenomegaly, liver dysfunction, lymphadenopathy, hyperferritinemia, and hemophagocytosis. The prevalence of MAS in AOSD patients is estimated to be between 10–19%, but the mortality rate of AOSD-associated MAS is approximately 10–20%. The precise mechanism by which AOSD develops to MAS remains unclear. There is an unmet need to investigate the pathogenesis of MAS in AOSD in order to identify novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets to improve disease prognosis. Transcriptomes from peripheral blood monocytes of 12 treatment-naïve AOSD patients and 10 healthy controls