Telomeres and T-cell Receptor Excision Circles (TRECs) From Peripheral Blood in Normal Subjects Over Time

Université de Sherbrooke

Status: Invitation-only

Conditions: Telomere Length in Healthy Controls

Treatments: Other: Control

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other; Industry

Identifiers

NCT01982890

Telomeres and TREC

Details and patient eligibility

About

The Investigators have established a cohort of patients with recent-onset inflammatory arthritis called Early Undifferentiated PolyArthritis (EUPA). This cohort was established to define novel biomarkers of poor outcomes. We want to study telomere length and T-cell Receptor Excision Circles (TREC) numbers in peripheral blood as new biomarkers.

This cohort of normal controls was established to be able to define the stability over short periods of time of telomere length and TREC numbers in normal individuals, in order to compare with arthritis patients.

Full description

It is difficult to establish early on the prognosis of patients with recent-onset polyarthritis. We want to know if we can use the length of telomeres in peripheral blood cells at baseline as a novel prognostic marker.

In order to be able to interpret our observations in arthritis patients over time, we need to compare these results with those observed in normal human controls adjusted for gender and for age groups.

These patients are first screened for the presence of acute or chronic severe diseases (cancer, cardiovascular, articular, et...). They then have genomic DNA extracted from peripheral blood at Baseline and at 3 months interval for a year than annually for a total duration of 5 years. A complete blood count is collected at each blood draw. At each blood draw, the appearance of acute or chronic diseases is noted.

Enrollment: 200 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 85 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Healthy-for-age subjects, as defined by Absence of acute infectious, traumatic or immunologic disease; Absence of severe chronic diseases Age and sex concordant with the stratification of patients from a longitudinal cohort of early inflammatory arthritis (EUPA)

Exclusion criteria

History of cancer (except a single episode of non-melanocytic skin cancer) Severe cardiovascular disease (i.e. difficult to control or requiring multiple drugs) Chronic infection Inflammatory arthritis Severe high blood pressure or diabetes (i.e. difficult to control or requiring multiple drugs) Any severe disease affecting function or difficult to control or requiring multiple drugs

Trial design

200 participants in 1 patient group

Normal human controls

Description:

Observational study. Subjects are screened for the absence of severe illnesses and followed prospectively with sequential blood draws, noting the occurence of acute and chronic severe illnesses. Subjects are matched by age groups and sex with patients of the prospective cohort EUPA including patients with recent-onset inflammatory polyarthritis.

Treatment:

Other: Control