Welcome to This Week in Rheumatology. This week we're covering 6 notable papers spanning risk stratification in systemic autoimmune diseases and new insights into disease pathophysiology. Let's dive in.

This week's papers:

1. Pulmonary arterial hypertension susceptibility and mortality among patients with systemic sclerosis with the DNASE1L3 rs35677470 (Arg206Cys) variant — Annals of the rheumatic diseases 2026
2. Prospective evaluation of recombinant Herpes zoster vaccine in systemic sclerosis: immunogenicity, safety, and disease outcomes — Rheumatology (Oxford, England) 2026
3. Development and Validation of the ALARN Model: A Predictive Mortality Score for Antisynthetase Syndrome — Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) 2026
4. Malignancy Rates in children, young people, and adults with Juvenile Inflammatory Arthritis (JIA): an observational study using CPRD Aurum — Rheumatology (Oxford, England) 2026
5. GPR15-guided CD8T regulatory cells control intestinal inflammation — Nature 2026

Listen at AudioScholar

Welcome to This Week in Rheumatology. This week we're covering 10 notable papers spanning new therapeutic breakthroughs in systemic diseases like lupus and polymyalgia rheumatica, a refinement of our approach to common conditions like osteoarthritis, and a look at the future of rheumatology through the lenses of precision medicine and health equity. Let's dive in.

This week's papers:

1. Finerenone in Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease Due to Glomerular Diseases: A Randomized Clinical Trial. — JAMA 2026
2. Phase 3 Trial of Secukinumab in Polymyalgia Rheumatica. — The New England journal of medicine 2026
3. Obexelimab for the Treatment of IgG4-Related Disease. — The New England journal of medicine 2026
4. Invisible pain, visible impact: the urgent need to prioritise women's health in rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases. — Annals of the rheumatic diseases 2026
5. Evaluating machine learning tools to assist title and abstract screening in systematic literature reviews: a report based on the EULAR RA Management Recommendations Task Force. — Annals of the rheumatic diseases 2026
6. OA Fundamentals Series: DIAGNOSIS AND CLINICAL ASSESSMENT OF OSTEOARTHRITIS. — Osteoarthritis and cartilage 2026
7. Integrated Clinical and Proteomic Profiling of CD19 CAR-T Cell Therapy in Progressive Systemic Sclerosis. — Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) 2026
8. Integrated transcriptomic and epigenomic profiling reveals conserved molecular subtypes across systemic autoimmune diseases. — Annals of the rheumatic diseases 2026
9. Efficacy and safety of the CD40 ligand inhibitor dapirolizumab pegol in systemic lupus erythematosus (PHOENYCS GO): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial. — Lancet (London, England) 2026
10. Towards global clinical practice guidelines for the management of non-specific low back pain in primary care: a review of current guideline recommendations and how they have changed over the last 30 years. — The Lancet. Rheumatology 2026

Listen at AudioScholar

Welcome to This Week in Rheumatology. This week we're covering 9 notable papers spanning new therapeutic paradigms like CAR-T cell therapy [7], optimizing treatment in challenging populations like lupus nephritis [3] and elderly vasculitis [4], and innovations in diagnostics for conditions from myositis-ILD [8] to hand osteoarthritis [5]. We'll also touch on the growing global burden of mental hea…

This week's papers:

1. Genomic instability drives POSTNmyofibroblasts via STING-WNT axis to promote immunosuppression and PARPi resistance in ovarian cancer. — Science translational medicine 2026
2. Decoding variants of uncertain significance in systemic autoinflammatory diseases. — Nature reviews. Rheumatology 2026
3. Early belimumab accelerates renal response and reduces glucocorticoid exposure in lupus nephritis: a multicenter propensity-matched study. — Rheumatology (Oxford, England) 2026
4. Incorporating frailty and disease severity into treatment decisions for older patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis. — Rheumatology (Oxford, England) 2026
5. Radiomics Grading of Hand Osteoarthritis Severity Using Standard Radiographs: Results from the DIGICOD Cohort. — Osteoarthritis and cartilage 2026
6. Resetting autoimmune disease with CAR cell therapies. — Nature medicine 2026
7. Serum KL-6 and lung ultrasound B-lines: a combined non-invasive model for screening and predicting interstitial lung disease in idiopathic inflammatory myopathy. — RMD open 2026
8. Updated trends in the global prevalence and burden of mental disorders, 1990-2023: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023. — Lancet (London, England) 2026

Listen at AudioScholar

Welcome to This Week in Rheumatology. This week we're covering 8 notable papers spanning several key areas, including new therapeutic strategies for diseases like Sjögren's and GCA, ways to optimize outcomes in psoriatic arthritis and RA-associated lung disease, and practical guidance on vaccination and clinical trial methodology. Let's dive in.

This week's papers:

1. Resetting autoimmune disease with CAR cell therapies — Nature medicine 2026
2. Treatment strategies in giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica: beyond glucocorticoids — Nature reviews. Rheumatology 2026
3. Repurposing leflunomide and hydroxychloroquine to treat Sjögren's disease (RepurpSS-II): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2b trial — The Lancet. Rheumatology 2026
4. Repair of radiographic joint damage in psoriatic arthritis: a cohort study — Rheumatology (Oxford, England) 2026
5. Recombinant zoster vaccine in patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases: efficacy, long-term protection and safety under immunosuppression — RMD open 2026
6. Validation of screening criteria for interstitial lung disease in rheumatoid arthritis in routine clinical practice: the VAR-EPIDSER study — RMD open 2026
7. The American College of Rheumatology Updated Recommended Methods for Development of Disease Classification and Response Criteria — Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) 2026

Listen at AudioScholar

Welcome to This Week in Rheumatology. This week we're covering 8 notable papers spanning early intervention strategies, the fundamental mechanisms of autoimmunity and fibrosis, and new data on lupus therapies. Let's dive in.

This week's papers:

1. Abatacept versus hydroxychloroquine for prevention of rheumatoid arthritis in individuals with palindromic rheumatism: a randomized open-label trial. — Nature medicine 2026
2. International expert consensus recommendations on standardised nomenclature of SSA/Ro (TROVE2/Ro60 and TRIM21/Ro52) autoantibodies in autoimmune diseases. — Annals of the rheumatic diseases 2026
3. Teriparatide Plus Zoledronic Acid for Osteogenesis Imperfecta: A Randomized Clinical Trial. — JAMA 2026
4. Natural killer cell immunotherapy reverses lung fibrosis by eliminating senescent fibroblasts. — Science translational medicine 2026
5. Anti-PAD4 antibodies link autoimmunity to PAD4 with CTL-associated rheumatoid arthritis. — Annals of the rheumatic diseases 2026
6. Targeting fibroblasts in immune mediated inflammatory diseases: a cellular basis for cure? — Rheumatology (Oxford, England) 2026
7. Innate lymphoid cells in rheumatoid arthritis as mediators of pathology and resolution. — Nature reviews. Rheumatology 2026
8. Whole blood transcriptome profiling in patients treated with deucravacitinib and novel mechanistic insights into TYK2 inhibition in lupus: results from a post hoc analysis of the PAISLEY SLE phase 2 trial. — Annals of the rheumatic diseases 2026

Listen at AudioScholar