Background Biological therapies have improved the clinical course and quality of life of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Despite the availability and effectiveness of these treatments, some patients experience multiple failures to biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs), constituting a particular challenge to clinicians. Objectives This study aims to determine the percentage of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who fail to respond to subsequent bDMARDs, describe their characteristics, and identify specific baseline and early features during the first bDMARD as possible predictors of consecutive multiple bDMARD failure. Methods This is a longitudinal study involving RA patients from the prospective biological cohort drawn from the La Paz University Hospital RA Registry (RA-Paz), starting a bDMARD during the years 2000 to 2019. Patients who presented insufficient response (due to primary or secondary inefficacy) to at least three bDMARDs or two bDMARDs with different mechanism of action were considered multi-refractory (MR-patients). Patients who achieved low disease activity or remission (by DAS-28) with the first bDMARD and maintained this over a follow-up period of at least 5 years were considered non-refractory (NR-patients). Results A total of 41 out of 402 (10%) patients were MR-patients and 71 (18%) NR-patients. In the multivariate analysis, the presence of erosions, younger age, higher baseline DAS-28 and mostly achieving delta-DAS < 1.2 after 6 months of the first bDMARD (OR 11.12; 95% CI 3.34–26.82) were independently associated with being MR-patients to bDMARDs. Conclusions In our cohort, 10% of patients with RA were observed to have multi-refractoriness to bDMARDs. This study supports the contention that younger patients with erosive disease and especially the early absence of clinical response to the first bDMARDs are predictors of multi-refractoriness to consecutive biologics. Hence, patients with these characteristics should be monitored more closely and may benefit from personalized treatments.

Mitochondria are one of the most exhaustively investigated organelles in the cell and most attention has been paid to the components of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) in the last 100 years. The ETC collects electrons from NADH or FADH2 and transfers them through a series of electron carriers within multiprotein respiratory complexes (complex I to IV) to oxygen, therefore generating an electrochemical gradient that can be used by the F1-F0-ATP synthase (also named complex V) in the mitochondrial inner membrane to synthesize ATP. The organization and function of the ETC is a continuous source of surprises. One of the latest is the discovery that the respiratory complexes can assemble to form a variety of larger structures called super-complexes (SCs). This opened an unexpected level of complexity in this well-known and fundamental biological process. This review will focus on the current evidence for the formation of different SCs and will explore how they modulate the ETC organization according to the metabolic state. Since the field is rapidly growing, we also comment on the experimental techniques used to describe these SC and hope that this overview may inspire new technologies that will help to advance the field.

Our data reflect the dynamic state of male fetal endocrinological status in comparison to female fetuses, and strongly suggest that the mechanisms of hormonal regulation differ in the two sexes.

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This study was undertaken to evaluate the role of thyroid hormones in fibrocystic breast disease. The concentrations of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), thyroxine (T4), free T4 and free triiodothyronine (T3) were determined in serum of 50 women with fibrocystic breast disease without macrocysts (cysts of over 3 mm diameter) and in the serum and breast cyst fluid (BCF) of 60 women with fibrocystic breast disease and macrocysts. Possible relationships between thyroid hormones and estradiol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, testosterone, progesterone and 17-hydroxyprogesterone in the BCF also were analyzed. Serum thyroid hormone levels did not differ between the two groups. Free T3 levels were higher in BCF than in serum (p < 0.001), whereas T4, free T4 and TSH concentrations were lower in BCF as compared to serum (p < 0.001). Cysts were divided according to their K+/Na+ ratio because a ratio above 3 represents a predictor of malignant transformation. Free T3 concentrations were higher in BCF than in serum, in both low K+/Na+ cysts and in cysts with a K+/Na+ ratio above 3; those cysts with a high K+/Na+ ratio had the highest free T3 concentration. Free T3 in cysts correlated positively to the K+/Na+ ratio (r = 0.831; p < 0.001). Multiple linear regression analysis demonstrated that the concentration of free T3 in BCF was predicted statistically by the positive regression coefficient for the estradiol concentration. No candidate variable was included in the model to predict concentrations of TSH, free T4 or T4 in BCF. These data suggest an important role of free T3 in the physiology of fibrocystic breast disease.

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Objective: To assess the prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) and its possible association with clinical and analytical parameters of the disease. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 38 consecutive patients with pSS were compared with 38 age and sex healthy controls. Demographic variables and classic cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs): Hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and smoking habit were assessed in both groups, and also disease-related features were collected in pSS group. The presence of subclinical atherosclerosis was assessed by carotid ultrasound, with carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) measurement and determination of the presence of atheromatous plaques. Results: Subclinical atherosclerosis presence was remarkably greater in patients with pSS than in healthy controls (OR = 4.17, 95%CI [1.27-16.54]), as well as CIMT values (0.79 ± 0.43 mm vs. 0.66 ± 0.27 mm; P = .02). No differences for classic CVRFs were found between both groups. An association of subclinical atherosclerosis with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and rheumatoid factor (RF) was observed in patients with pSS. Conclusion: This cohort showed a greater prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis in patients with pSS, indicating this disease as an independent risk factor for presence of early vascular damage.