A wide perspective of targeted therapies for precision medicine in autoimmune diseases

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction The strategy of precision medicine is achieved by the stratification of patients and targeted therapy. It has been shown that the pathological conditions of patients who are classified or diagnosed with a single disease are actually diverse in almost all autoimmune diseases. Therefore, the practice of precision medicine is important for the treatment of patients with autoimmune diseases. Areas covered At present, precision medicine has not been achieved in any autoimmune disease. This article reviewed the attempted use of precision medicine for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus and psoriatic arthritis. Expert opinion Although multiple molecular-targeted therapies are available for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, the response to each treatment strategy often differs markedly among patients, and it is unclear how they are differentially selected for each patient. The establishment of precision medicine is especially important in heterogenous autoimmune diseases (e.g., systemic lupus erythematosus, psoriatic arthritis). Various symptoms must be improved at the same time, but the treatment options are limited. Therefore, the selection of the optimal treatment for individual patients is complex. Although some predictors of the treatment response are reported, precision medicine has not been sufficiently well evaluated in real clinical practice, especially for autoimmune diseases.