Biological classification of childhood arthritis: roadmap to a molecular nomenclature

Creative Commons License

Nigrovic P. A., Colbert R. A., Holers V. M., ÖZEN S., Ruperto N., Thompson S. D., ...More

NATURE REVIEWS RHEUMATOLOGY, vol.17, no.5, pp.257-269, 2021 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Review
  • Volume: 17 Issue: 5
  • Publication Date: 2021
  • Doi Number: 10.1038/s41584-021-00590-6
  • Journal Name: NATURE REVIEWS RHEUMATOLOGY
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE
  • Page Numbers: pp.257-269
  • Hacettepe University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Chronic inflammatory arthritis in childhood is heterogeneous in presentation and course. Most forms exhibit clinical and genetic similarity to arthritis of adult onset, although at least one phenotype might be restricted to children. Nevertheless, paediatric and adult rheumatologists have historically addressed disease classification separately, yielding a juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) nomenclature that exhibits no terminological overlap with adult-onset arthritis. Accumulating clinical, genetic and mechanistic data reveal the critical limitations of this strategy, necessitating a new approach to defining biological categories within JIA. In this Review, we provide an overview of the current evidence for biological subgroups of arthritis in children, delineate forms that seem contiguous with adult-onset arthritis, and consider integrative genetic and bioinformatic strategies to identify discrete entities within inflammatory arthritis across all ages.