Identification and drug targeting of an inflammatory macrophage-synovial fibroblast crosstalk pathway

Heavily inflamed synovial tissue from patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were disaggregated and cultured for 24h with medications used in the clinic to treat RA. Total cell RNA sequencing was performed on samples treated with or without the medications. Data on 2 patients is provided here. In addition, primary fibroblasts from 2 additional patients were cultured and treated with or without TNF as well as cultured with macrophages.