New Paper: Alterations in Inflammatory Markers in RA

Its a pleasure to share a new paper form the McDonnell Lab, looking at something called C Reactive Protein, or CRP.

CRP is important in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), its a marker of increased disease and clinicians use it in common activity scores, however the McDonnell Lab present research suggesting we need to be more careful when talking about CRP.

CRP is made up of 5 identical subunits and it can break apart into individual pieces, and when it does so it functions completely differently, however this new research suggests that clinical tests cannot tell the difference between CRP in the form with 5 sub units and those with one subunit.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2026.1925147/full

This work was a real team effort, Alexia our BSc student worked for years on this research, with support from Lucia, Christophe and Karen as well as support from Imogen and George. Samples from Prof Jury and Prof Manson, who also gave invaluable advice. Give it a read and get in touch with any questions!

New Paper Shows B2GPI Changes Structures

We are happy to share our newest paper on how Beta-2-glycoprotein I (B2GPI) moves.

We have used the laboratory's high performance computing suite to take models of B2GPI and modify them to match versions we see in blood. Then we have taken this and measured how it would move in the blood, to see if there are differences in how different versions of B2GPI behave.

The link for the whole paper is here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42162085/

But long story short, all the common modifications have an effect on how B2GPI moves, and that might mean that the antibodies seen in APS (against B2GPI) might be generated due to changes in the circulating B2GPI, meaning there are circulating targets to investigate!

We are hoping to put out a video about this paper to run through the main findings so keep an eye out!

APS Patient Day

It was an enormous pleasure to attend and speak at the Hughes APS Trust patient day. I spoke about antibodies, and how they come about. It was fantastic to speak to so many people so keen to contribute to research. The patients were so passionate and asked really keen questions, really probing some of the clincal staff!

It was a unique experience to present to my own parents too, and one I wont quickly forget!

Many thanks to the Hughes APS trust for the invitation, and I hope to be at the next one too!