Giant cell arteritis: when genomics drives precision medicine

Giant cell arteritis is the most frequent systemic inflammatory vasculitis, mainly affecting large vessels. 1 Hunder GG Bloch DA Michel BA et al. The American College of Rheumatology 1990 criteria for the classification of giant cell arteritis. Arthritis Rheum. 1990; 33: 1122-1128 Crossref PubMed Google Scholar The cause of giant cell arteritis is complex; the fewer risk loci identified in giant cell arteritis compared with other immune-mediated diseases emphasises that an intricate relationship between genetic, environmental, and other factors is likely to be involved in the development of the disease. Therefore, making an effort to use genetic findings to predict the risk of giant cell arteritis is likely to be hampered by the fact that genetic factors contribute to disease susceptibility to an unknown extent. Risk loci involved in giant cell arteritis susceptibility: a genome-wide association studyWe have found several additional loci associated with giant cell arteritis, highlighting the crucial role of angiogenesis in disease susceptibility. Our study represents a step forward in the translation of genomic findings to clinical practice in giant cell arteritis, proposing new treatments and a method to measure genetic predisposition to this vasculitis. Full-Text PDF Open Access