New research from Queen Mary University of London has revealed – for the first time – how the condition Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA) may be caused by a certain group of white blood cells called 'neutrophils'. GCA (also known as temporal arteritis) is a condition which causes severe inflammation in the blood vessels and primarily affects the elderly.
GCA is initially treated with a six-month course of high-dose steroids. This study, published today in the journal Circulation Research, has shown that despite what appears to be signs of improvement following the treatment, the neutrophils become altered in a severe way that could lead to stroke or blindness.
This is the only study of its kind to investigate the role of neutrophils in relation to GCA and the discovery was made by comparing blood samples from patients suffering from vascular diseases. Patients with GCA, recruited to Southend University Hospital and Hammersmith Hospital, had blood samples taken within 48 hours of beginning steroid therapy, and again at 1, 4 and 24 weeks into treatment. Researchers examined these samples by isolating the neutrophils and studying its behaviour.
Mauro Perretti, lead author and Professor of Immunopharmacology, Queen Mary University of London, comments:
"We are very excited by this discovery and hope our findings will eventually lead to better clinical insight into whether a patient with GCA is really improving with treatment. It is commonplace for patients to come off therapy after six months but our research shows this may be too early for many. A GCA patient may appear to have recovered, but these findings reveal how changes and complications in the circulatory system could cause serious illness, such as stroke or even death.
We hope our study will lead to doctors monitoring the status of their patients' neutrophils in order to fully and truly assess disease progression and therapeutic control."
The research was a collaborative four-year effort led by Professor Mauro Perretti and colleagues Professor Bhaskar Dasgupta, Head of Rheumatology at Southend University Hospital, and Professor Justin Mason who leads on vascular Inflammation at Hammersmith Hospital.
In the UK, it is estimated that about one in every 4,500 people will develop a new case of giant cell arteritis each year. The condition is age-related and only tends to affect adults over the age of 50, and more commonly adults over 60 years old. The condition is three times more common in women than in men and it also seven times more common in white people than in black people*.
For media information contact:
Charli Scouller
PR Manager (School of Medicine and Dentistry)
Queen Mary University of London
c.scouller@qmul.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7228 7943
Notes to the editor
* Statistics taken from NHS website http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/giant-cell-arteritis/Pages/Introduction.aspx
We would like to thank the British Heart Foundation who funded this study.
About Queen Mary University of London
Queen Mary University of London is one of the UK's leading research-focused higher education institutions with 17,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students.
A member of the Russell Group, QM is amongst the largest of the colleges of the University of London. QM's 4,000 staff deliver world-class degrees and research across 21 academic departments and institutes, within three Faculties: Science and Engineering; Humanities and Social Sciences; and the School of Medicine and Dentistry.
Queen Mary is ranked 11th in the UK according to the Guardian analysis of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, and has been described as 'the biggest star among the research-intensive institutions' by the Times Higher Education. In 2012, a Queen Mary study was awarded Research Project of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards. The university has been nominated again in 2013.
In 2014, Queen Mary was positioned 35th among 130 UK universities in the Complete University Guide and 36th according to the Guardian University Guide. The 2013-4 QS World Rankings placed us 115th of 700 universities worldwide and 19th in the UK, while the 2013 Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Rankings of World Universities placed us in the top 30 in the UK and in the top 201-300 bracket worldwide. QM has a strong international reputation, with around 20 per cent of students coming from over 150 countries. The university has an annual turnover of £350m, research income worth £100m, and generates employment and output worth £700m to the UK economy each year.
QM is unique amongst London's universities in being able to offer a completely integrated residential campus, with a 2,000-bed award-winning Student Village on its Mile End campus.
Journal
Circulation Research