Assessment of Galectin-9 in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Its Correlation with Disease Activity

Mostafa Mohamed Abdelal, Norhan; Kamel Sayed, Sohair; Hussein Abd Elsamea, Mona; Ahmed Mokhtar, Abeer

doi:10.21608/jcmrp.2025.343573.1200

Assessment of Galectin-9 in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Its Correlation with Disease Activity

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.

² Department of Physical Medicine, Rheumatology and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.

10.21608/jcmrp.2025.343573.1200

Abstract

Abstract: Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common rheumatic inflammatory disease that causes the development of articular damage, lifelong impairment, and extra-articular symptoms 1. Anti-cyclic citrullinated antibody (anti-CCP) and rheumatoid factor (RF) are the two main diagnostic markers for RA. Still, due to the presence of seronegative RA, we need other markers for diagnosing seronegative patients. Our study revealed that RA patients have higher serum levels galectin-9 (Gal-9), especially seronegative patients. Patients and Methods: There were 90 participants in this study: 35 age and sex-matched controls and 55 RA patients, measuring serum GAL-9 in all subjects using the ELISA technique. Result and discussion: RA patients had considerably higher serum GAL-9 than the control group (86.39 ± 47.65 pg/mL vs. 43.89 ± 21.33 pg/mL, respectively, p < 0.001). GAL-9 at the cut-off point of ≥51.0, 76.4% sensitivity, 71.4% specificity, total accuracy of 74.4% and p < 0.001). Seronegative RA patients had considerably higher serum GAL-9 levels than the control group (P < 0.001). For the diagnosis of seronegative RA, at a cut-off point of ≥53.1, 71.8% sensitivity, 74.3% specificity, total accuracy of 72.9% and p < 0.001. Furthermore, our study discovered that GAL-9 was considerably higher in patients with high disease activity compared to those with mild and moderate disease activity p<0.001 after classifying the patient group into mild, moderate, and severe groups based on disease activity as determined by the DAS-28 ESR score. In conclusion, Galectin-9 can be used as a sensitive marker for diagnosing RA, especially in seronegative patients, and it also helps in distinguishing RA disease activity.

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