Arthritis & Clinical Immunology Research Program
What We Do
The human immune system is critical for protection against infections and cancer, but diseases of the immune system can be devastating. These include allergic responses, immunodeficiencies and immune reactions directed against self, called autoimmunity. Autoimmune diseases afflict at least one in twelve Americans and are a leading cause of disability and early death in young women of child-bearing age. Our mission is to improve the lives of patients through a continuum of basic mechanistic studies, clinical research, industry collaborations and clinical care.
Scientists in Arthritis & Clinical Immunology focus on understanding systemic autoimmunity and deciphering basic immunologic concepts. Our studies address the etiology, pathogenesis and molecular mechanisms of complex human autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjögren’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory myositis, multiple sclerosis (MS) and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. Our studies on immune development and mechanisms of immune protection or perturbation have broad impact on immune responses to vaccination or infection.
Our investigators use a wide range of genetic, genomic, proteomic, immunologic and molecular approaches. To facilitate these patient-oriented research activities, some of our scientists are also developing novel methods to mine large datasets and evaluate complex human genetic diseases.
In addition, the Arthritis & Clinical Immunology program houses resources that are essential for many investigators in our program and in the larger autoimmune disease research community. These include the Biorepository Core, Clinical Immunology Laboratory, Myositis Testing Laboratory, Human Antibody Core, Clinical Genomics Center and Phenotyping Core. Many of these cores were established and funded through ongoing federal grants, leveraging equipment purchased and serviced by OMRF. Our investigators also benefit from departmental journal clubs, seminar series, intentional mentorship and collaborative, multi-investigator scientific projects.
Our Scientists
OMRF Executive Vice President & Chief Medical Officer, Professor and Program Chair
Director of Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics, OMRF Multiple Sclerosis Center of Excellence, Professor
Multiple Sclerosis Center of Excellence
Rheumatology Center of Excellence
Our Publications
2024
Popescu NI, Kluza J, Reidy MA, Duggan E, Lambris JD, Thompson LF, Coggeshall KM. Monocyte uptake of polymeric peptidoglycan is bimodal and governed by complement C3 and C4 opsonins. JCI Insight, 2024 December, PMID: 39656526
Kurien BT, Dave D, Tsaliki M, Quadri SMS, Lewis VM, Scofield RH. Experimental Induction of Anti-Muscarinic Type-3-Receptor Extracellular Loop Antibodies by Immunization with 4-Hydroxy-2-nonenal Modified Ro60 and Unmodified Ro60. Clin Exp Immunol, 2024 December, PMID: 39658078
Thomas DE, Enfrein A, Scofield RH. The first use of "lupus" as a disease. Lupus:9612033241306790, 2024 December, PMID: 39648842
Griffin TM, Lopes EBP, Cortassa D, Batushansky A, Jeffries MA, Makosa D, Jopkiewicz A, Mehta-D'souza P, Komaravolu RK, Kinter MT. Sexually dimorphic metabolic effects of a high fat diet on knee osteoarthritis in mice. Biol Sex Differ 15:103, 2024 December, PMID: 39639386, PMCID: PMC11619521
Gupta N, Carsons SE, Carteron NL, Scofield RH, Lee AS, Thomas DE, Moua T, Ussavarungsi K, Clair EWS, Meehan R, Dunleavy K, Makara M, Hammitt KM. Integrating Patient Advocacy Groups in the Development of Clinical Practice Guidelines. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken), 2024 November, PMID: 39605233
Askanase AD, D'Cruz D, Kalunian K, Merrill JT, Navarra SV, Cahuzac C, Cornelisse P, Murphy MJ, Strasser DS, Trokan L, Berkani O. Cenerimod, a sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor modulator, versus placebo in patients with moderate-to-severe systemic lupus erythematosus (CARE): an international, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 2 trial. Lancet Rheumatol, 2024 November, PMID: 39586304
Mao-Draayer Y, Bar-Or A, Balashov K, Foley J, Smoot K, Longbrake EE, Robertson D, Mendoza JP, Lewin JB, Everage N, Božin I, Lyons J, Mokliatchouk O, Bame E, Giuliani F. Real-World Safety and Effectiveness of Dimethyl Fumarate in Patients with MS: Results from the ESTEEM Phase 4 and PROCLAIM Phase 3 Studies with a Focus on Older Patients. Adv Ther, 2024 November, PMID: 39570545
Noaiseh G, Deboo A, King JK, Varadhachary A, Sarka G, Goodman BP, Hammitt KM, Frantsve-Hawley J, Fox R, Baker MC, Danielides S, Mandel S, Pavlakis PP, Scofield RH, Wallace DJ, Carteron N, Carsons S. Recommendations for Aligned Nomenclature of Peripheral Nervous System Disorders Across Rheumatology and Neurology. Arthritis Rheumatol, 2024 November, PMID: 39489692
Werth VP, Merrill JT, Furie R, Dörner T, van Vollenhoven R, Lipsky P, Weiswasser M, Korish S, Schafer PH, Stern M, Li S, Delev N. Effect of iberdomide on cutaneous manifestations in systemic lupus erythematosus: a randomized phase 2 clinical trial. J Am Acad Dermatol, 2024 October, PMID: 39461504
Fava A, Wagner CA, James JA. Role of Autoantibodies in Lupus Nephritis: reply. Arthritis Rheumatol, 2024 October, PMID: 39415486
Chu D, Schwartz N, Ampudia J, Guthridge J, James J, Buyon JP, Connelly S, Fung M, Ng CT, Accelerating Medicines Partnership: RA/SLE Network, Fava A, Petri M, Mohan C, Putterman C. Soluble urine activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule is a strong predictor of lupus nephritis. Rheumatology (Oxford), 2024 October, PMID: 39404817
Yuan X, Qin X, Takemoto K, Zhao J, Sanderson M, Xu X, Zhang Y, Helke KL, Jacobs Wolf B, Guthridge JM, James JA, Zhou X, Assassi S, Feghali-Bostwick C, Wang D, Sun L, Tsao BP. Human hypofunctional NCF1 variants promote pulmonary fibrosis in the bleomycin-induced mouse model and patients with systemic sclerosis via expansion of SPP1( ) monocytes-derived macrophages. Ann Rheum Dis, 2024 September, PMID: 39299725
Huang KT, Wagner LE, Takano T, Lin XX, Bagavant H, Deshmukh U, Yule DI. Dysregulated Ca(2 ) signaling, fluid secretion, and mitochondrial function in a mouse model of early Sjögren's disease. Elife 13, 2024 September, PMID: 39259200, PMCID: PMC11390111
Scofield RH, Lewis VM. Is X chromosome inactivation a cause or effect of SLE? Nat Rev Rheumatol, 2024 September, PMID: 39223392
Cordeiro B, Ahn JJ, Gawde S, Ucciferri C, Alvarez-Sanchez N, Revelo XS, Stickle N, Massey K, Brooks DG, Guthridge JM, Pardo G, Winer DA, Axtell RC, Dunn SE. Obesity intensifies sex-specific interferon signaling to selectively worsen central nervous system autoimmunity in females. Cell Metab, 2024 August, PMID: 39168127, PMCID: PMC11463735
Lawrence S, Scofield RH. Post traumatic stress disorder associated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysregulation and physical illness. Brain Behav Immun Health 41:100849, 2024 August, PMID: 39280087, PMCID: PMC11401111
Sok SPM, Pipkin K, Popescu NI, Reidy M, Li B, Van Remmen H, Kinter M, Sun XH, Fan Z, Zhao M. Gpx4 Regulates Invariant NKT Cell Homeostasis and Function by Preventing Lipid Peroxidation and Ferroptosis. J Immunol, 2024 August, PMID: 39158281, PMCID: PMC11408103
Zahoor I, Pan G, Cerghet M, Elbayoumi T, Mao-Draayer Y, Giri S, Palaniyandi SS. Current understanding of cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction in multiple sclerosis. Heliyon 10:e35753, 2024 August, PMID: 39170118, PMCID: PMC11337049
Casares-Marfil D, Martínez-Bueno M, Borghi MO, Pons-Estel G, PRECISESADS Clinical Consortium, Reales G, Zuo Y, Espinosa G, Radstake T, van den Hoogen LL, Wallace C, Guthridge J, James JA, Cervera R, Luigi Meroni P, Martin J, Knight JS, Alarcón-Riquelme ME, Sawalha AH. A genome-wide association study suggests new susceptibility loci for primary antiphospholipid syndrome. Arthritis Rheumatol, 2024 July, PMID: 38973605, PMCID: PMC11521773
Fava A, Wagner CA, Guthridge CJ, Kheir J, Macwana S, DeJager W, Gross T, Izmirly P, Belmont HM, Diamond B, Davidson A, Utz PJ, Weisman MH, Magder LS, Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP) RA/SLE Network, Guthridge JM, Petri M, Buyon J, James JA. Association of autoantibody concentrations and trajectories with lupus nephritis histological features and treatment response. Arthritis Rheumatol, 2024 July, PMID: 38962936, PMCID: PMC11521769
Montgomery TL, Wang Q, Mirza A, Dwyer D, Wu Q, Dowling CA, Martens JWS, Yang J, Krementsov DN, Mao-Draayer Y. Identification of commensal gut microbiota signatures as predictors of clinical severity and disease progression in multiple sclerosis. Sci Rep 14:15292, 2024 July, PMID: 38961134, PMCID: PMC11222390
Gawde S, Siebert N, Ruprecht K, Kumar G, Ko RM, Massey K, Guthridge JM, Mao-Draayer Y, Schindler P, Hastermann M, Pardo G, Paul F, Axtell RC. Serum Proteomics Distinguish Subtypes of NMO Spectrum Disorder and MOG Antibody-Associated Disease and Highlight Effects of B-Cell Depletion. Neurol Neuroimmunol Neuroinflamm 11:e200268, 2024 July, PMID: 38885457, PMCID: PMC11186702
Ippolito GMR, Palanjian RR, Mao-Draayer Y, Capizzano A, Barboglio-Romo P, Clemens JQ, Gupta P, Dunn R, O'Dell D, Daignault-Newton S, Van Til M, Cameron AP, Stoffel JT. A Prospective Observational Study of Posterior Tibial Nerve Stimulation in Multiple Sclerosis. Int Urogynecol J, 2024 June, PMID: 38942931
Merrill JT, Tanaka Y, D'Cruz D, Vila-Rivera K, Siri D, Zeng X, Saxena A, Aringer M, D'Silva KM, Cheng L, Mohamed MF, Siovitz L, Bhatnagar S, Gaudreau MC, Doan TT, Friedman A. Efficacy and Safety of Upadacitinib or Elsubrutinib Alone or in Combination for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Phase 2 Randomized Controlled Trial. Arthritis Rheumatol, 2024 June, PMID: 38923871
Anderson E, Powell M, Yang E, Kar A, Leung TM, Sison C, Steinberg R, Mims R, Choudhury A, Espinosa C, Zelmanovich J, Okoye NC, Choi EJ, Marder G, Narain S, Gregersen PK, Mackay M, Diamond B, Levy T, Zanos TP, Khosroshahi A, Sanz I, Luning Prak ET, Bar-Or A, Merrill J, Arriens C, Pardo G, Guthridge J, James J, Payne A, Utz PJ, Boss JM, Aranow C, Davidson A. Factors associated with immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in autoimmune disease individuals. JCI Insight, 2024 June, PMID: 38833310, PMCID: PMC11383356
Papinska JA, Durślewicz J, Bagavant H, Deshmukh US. Deleting Mitochondrial Superoxide Dismutase 2 in Salivary Gland Ductal Epithelial Cells Recapitulates Non-Sjögren's Sicca Syndrome. Int J Mol Sci 25, 2024 May, PMID: 38892170, PMCID: PMC11172772
Morand EF, Pike M, Merrill J, F van Vollenhoven R, Werth VP, Hobar C, Delev N, Shah V, Sharkey B, Wegman T, Catlett I, Banerjee S, Singhal S. Plain Language Summary of the PAISLEY study: deucravacitinib as a treatment for people with systemic lupus erythematosus. Expert Opin Investig Drugs:1-11, 2024 May, PMID: 38807572
Barber MRW, Ugarte-Gil MF, Hanly JG, Urowitz MB, St-Pierre Y, Gordon C, Bae SC, Romero-Diaz J, Sanchez-Guerrero J, Bernatsky S, Wallace DJ, Isenberg DA, Rahman A, Merrill JT, Fortin PR, Gladman DD, Bruce IN, Petri M, Ginzler EM, Dooley MA, Ramsey-Goldman R, Manzi S, Jönsen A, van Vollenhoven RF, Aranow C, Mackay M, Ruiz-Irastorza G, Lim SS, Inanc M, Kalunian KC, Jacobsen S, Peschken CA, Kamen DL, Askanase A, Pons-Estel BA, Cardwell FS, Alarcón GS, Clarke AE. Remission and low disease activity are associated with lower healthcare costs: results from the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) inception cohort. Ann Rheum Dis, 2024 May, PMID: 38754981
Isola JVV, Hense JD, Osorio CAP, Biswas S, Alberola-Ila J, Ocanas SR, Schneider A, Stout MB. Inflammation, immune cells, and cellular senescence in the aging ovary. Reproduction, 2024 May, PMID: 38744316, PMCID: PMC11301429
Zivadinov R, Bergsland N, Jakimovski D, Weinstock-Guttman B, Lorefice L, Schoonheim MM, Morrow SA, Ann Picone M, Pardo G, Zarif M, Gudesblatt M, Nicholas JA, Smith A, Hunter S, Newman S, AbdelRazek MA, Hoti I, Riolo J, Silva D, Fuchs TA, Dwyer MG, Hb Benedict R. Thalamic atrophy and dysconnectivity are associated with cognitive impairment in a multi-center, clinical routine, real-word study of people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Neuroimage Clin 42:103609, 2024 April, PMID: 38718640, PMCID: PMC11098945
Bagavant H, Durslewicz J, Pyclik M, Makuch M, Papinska JA, Deshmukh US. Age-associated B cell infiltration in salivary glands represents a hallmark of Sjögren's-like disease in aging mice. Geroscience, 2024 April, PMID: 38656650, PMCID: PMC11493885
Krustev E, Hanly JG, Chin R, Buhler KA, Urowitz MB, Gordon C, Bae SC, Romero-Diaz J, Sánchez-Guerrero J, Bernatsky S, Wallace DJ, Isenberg D, Rahman A, Merrill JT, Fortin PR, Gladman DD, Bruce IN, Petri MA, Ginzler EM, Dooley MA, Ramsey-Goldman R, Manzi S, Jönsen A, Alarcón GS, van Vollenhoven RF, Aranow C, Mackay M, Ruiz-Irastorza G, Lim S, Inanc M, Kalunian KC, Jacobsen S, Peschken CA, Kamen DL, Askenase A, Buyon J, Fritzler MJ, Clarke AE, Choi MY. Anti-KIF20B autoantibodies are associated with cranial neuropathy in systemic lupus erythematosus. Lupus Sci Med 11, 2024 April, PMID: 38599670, PMCID: PMC11015279
Carlucci PM, Preisinger K, Deonaraine KK, Zaminski D, Dall'Era M, Gold HT, Kalunian K, Fava A, Belmont HM, Wu M, Putterman C, Anolik J, Barnas JL, Furie R, Diamond B, Davidson A, Wofsy D, Kamen D, James JA, Guthridge JM, Apruzzese W, Rao D, Weisman MH, Accelerating Medicines Partnership in RA/SLE Network, Izmirly PM, Buyon J, Petri M. Extrarenal symptoms associate with worse quality of life in patients enrolled in the AMP RA/SLE Lupus Nephritis Network. Rheumatology (Oxford), 2024 March, PMID: 38530774
Huang KT, Wagner LE, Takano T, Lin XX, Bagavant H, Deshmukh U, Yule DI. Dysregulated Ca(2 ) signaling, fluid secretion, and mitochondrial function in a mouse model of early Sjögren's syndrome. bioRxiv, 2024 March, PMID: 38562738, PMCID: PMC10983907
Cross AH, Gelfand JM, Thebault S, Bennett JL, von Büdingen HC, Cameron B, Carruthers R, Edwards K, Fallis R, Gerstein R, Giacomini PS, Greenberg B, Hafler DA, Ionete C, Kaunzner UW, Kodama L, Lock C, Longbrake EE, Musch B, Pardo G, Piehl F, Weber MS, Yuen S, Ziemssen T, Bose G, Freedman MS, Anania VG, Ramesh A, Winger RC, Jia X, Herman A, Harp C, Bar-Or A. Emerging Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers of Disease Activity and Progression in Multiple Sclerosis. JAMA Neurol, 2024 March, PMID: 38466277, PMCID: PMC10928543
Jog NR, Wagner CA, Aberle T, Chakravarty EF, Arriens C, Guthridge JM, James JA. Neutrophils isolated from systemic lupus erythematosus patients exhibit a distinct functional phenotype. Front Immunol 15:1339250, 2024 March, PMID: 38524128, PMCID: PMC10957542
Mytych JS, Pan Z, Lopez-Davis C, Redinger N, Lawrence C, Ziegler J, Popescu NI, James JA, Farris AD. Peptidoglycan from Bacillus anthracis Inhibits Human Macrophage Efferocytosis in Part by Reducing Cell Surface Expression of MERTK and TIM-3. Immunohorizons 8:269-280, 2024 March, PMID: 38517345, PMCID: PMC10985058
Stock AJ, Gonzalez Paredes P, de Almeida LP, Kosanke SD, Chetlur S, Budde H, Wakenight P, Zwingman TA, Rosen ABI, Allenspach EJ, Millen KJ, Buckner JH, Rawlings DJ, Gorman JA. The IFIH1-A946T risk variant promotes diabetes in a sex-dependent manner. Front Immunol 15:1349601, 2024 February, PMID: 38487540, PMCID: PMC10937421
Gurrea-Rubio M, Wang Q, Mills EA, Wu Q, Pitt D, Tsou PS, Fox DA, Mao-Draayer Y. Siponimod Attenuates Neuronal Cell Death Triggered by Neuroinflammation via NFκB and Mitochondrial Pathways. Int J Mol Sci 25, 2024 February, PMID: 38473703, PMCID: PMC10931690
Izmirly PM, Kim MY, Carlucci PM, Preisinger K, Cohen BZ, Deonaraine K, Zaminski D, Dall'Era M, Kalunian K, Fava A, Belmont HM, Wu M, Putterman C, Anolik J, Barnas JL, Diamond B, Davidson A, Wofsy D, Kamen D, James JA, Guthridge JM, Apruzzese W, Rao DA, Weisman MH, Accelerating Medicines Partnership in RA/SLE Network, Petri M, Buyon J, Furie R. Longitudinal patterns and predictors of response to standard-of-care therapy in lupus nephritis: data from the Accelerating Medicines Partnership Lupus Network. Arthritis Res Ther 26:54, 2024 February, PMID: 38378664, PMCID: PMC10877793
Singh MK, Rallabandi HR, Zhou XJ, Qi YY, Zhao ZZ, Gan T, Zhang H, Looger LL, Nath SK. KLF2 enhancer variant rs4808485 increases lupus risk by modulating inflammasome machinery and cellular homoeostasis. Ann Rheum Dis, 2024 February, PMID: 38373841, PMCID: PMC11168881
Fazel-Najafabadi M, Looger LL, Rallabandi HR, Nath SK. A multilayered post-GWAS analysis pipeline defines functional variants and target genes for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Arthritis Rheumatol, 2024 February, PMID: 38369936, PMCID: PMC11213670
Ziaei A, Solomon O, Casper TC, Waltz M, Weinstock-Guttman B, Aaen G, Wheeler Y, Graves J, Benson L, Gorman M, Rensel M, Mar S, Lotze T, Greenberg B, Chitnis T, Waldman AT, Krupp L, James JA, Hart J, Barcellos LF, Waubant E. Gene-environment interactions: Epstein-Barr virus infection and risk of pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis. Mult Scler:13524585231224685, 2024 February, PMID: 38332747, PMCID: PMC11093131
Chakravarty EF, Utset T, Kamen DL, Contreras G, McCune WJ, Aranow C, Kalunian K, Massarotti E, Clowse MEB, Rovin BH, Lim SS, Majithia V, Dall'Era M, Looney RJ, Erkan D, Saxena A, Olsen NJ, Ko K, Guthridge JM, Goldmuntz E, Springer J, D'Aveta C, Keyes-Elstein L, Barry B, Pinckney A, McNamara J, James JA. Mycophenolate mofetil withdrawal in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: a multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial. Lancet Rheumatol, 2024 January, PMID: 38301682, PMCID: PMC10922882
Gurrea-Rubio M, Wu Q, Amin MA, Tsou PS, Campbell PL, Amarista CI, Ikari Y, Brodie WD, Mattichak MN, Muraoka S, Randon PM, Lind ME, Ruth JH, Mao-Draayer Y, Ding S, Shen X, Cooney LA, Lin F, Fox DA. Activation of cytotoxic lymphocytes through CD6 enhances killing of cancer cells. Cancer Immunol Immunother 73:34, 2024 January, PMID: 38280067, PMCID: PMC10821976
Sherman MA, Noroozi Farhadi P, Pak K, Trieu EP, Sarkar K, Targoff IN, Neely ML, Mammen AL, Rider LG, Childhood Myositis Heterogeneity Collaborative Study Group. Myositis-associated autoantibodies in juvenile myositis are associated with refractory disease and mortality. Arthritis Rheumatol, 2024 January, PMID: 38272842, PMCID: PMC11136598
Fava A, Buyon J, Magder L, Hodgin J, Rosenberg A, Demeke DS, Rao DA, Arazi A, Celia AI, Putterman C, Anolik JH, Barnas J, Dall'Era M, Wofsy D, Furie R, Kamen D, Kalunian K, James JA, Guthridge J, Atta MG, Monroy Trujillo J, Fine D, Clancy R, Belmont HM, Izmirly P, Apruzzese W, Goldman D, Berthier CC, Hoover P, Hacohen N, Raychaudhuri S, Davidson A, Diamond B, Accelerating Medicines Partnership in RA/SLE network, Petri M. Urine proteomic signatures of histological class, activity, chronicity, and treatment response in lupus nephritis. JCI Insight 9, 2024 January, PMID: 38258904, PMCID: PMC10906224
Isola JVV, Ocañas SR, Hubbart CR, Ko S, Mondal SA, Hense JD, Carter HNC, Schneider A, Kovats S, Alberola-Ila J, Freeman WM, Stout MB. A single-cell atlas of the aging mouse ovary. Nat Aging, 2024 January, PMID: 38200272, PMCID: PMC10798902
Radhakrishna U, Sadhasivam S, Radhakrishnan R, Forray A, Muvvala SB, Metpally RP, Patel S, Rawal RM, Vishweswaraiah S, Bahado-Singh RO, Nath SK. Placental cytochrome P450 methylomes in infants exposed to prenatal opioids: exploring the effects of neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome on health horizons. Front Genet 14:1292148, 2024 January, PMID: 38264209, PMCID: PMC10805101
Kurien BT, Scofield RH. Current Trends in Validating Antibody Specificities for ELISpot by Western Blotting. Methods Mol Biol 2768:15-27, 2024 January, PMID: 38502385
Loading...
Contact Us
Arthritis & Clinical Immunology Research Program
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
825 NE 13th Street, MS 53
Oklahoma City, OK 73104
Phone: (405) 271-4987
Fax: (405) 271- 7063
Email: judith-james@omrf.org