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Interleukin-17 family (IL-17s) comprises six structurally related members (IL-17A to IL-17F); sequence homology is highest between IL-17A and IL-17F, displaying certain overlapping functions. In general, IL-17A and IL-17F play important roles in chronic inflammation and autoimmunity, controlling bacterial and fungal infections, and signaling mainly through activation of the nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) pathway. The role of IL-17A and IL-17F has been established in chronic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs), such as psoriasis (PsO), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), axial spondylarthritis (axSpA), hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), multiple sclerosis (MS), and asthma. CD4 + helper T cells (Th17) activated by IL-23 are well-studied sources of IL-17A and IL-17F. However, other cellular subtypes can also produce IL-17A and IL-17F, including gamma delta (γδ) T cells, alpha beta (αβ) T cells, type 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3), natural killer T cells (NKT), or mucosal associated invariant T cells (MAIT). Interestingly, the production of IL-17A and IL-17F by innate and innate-like lymphocytes can take place in an IL-23 independent manner in addition to IL-23 classical pathway. This would explain the limitations of the inhibition of IL-23 in the treatment of patients with certain rheumatic immune-mediated conditions such as axSpA. Despite their coincident functions, IL-17A and IL-17F contribute independently to chronic tissue inflammation having somehow non-redundant roles. Although IL-17A has been more widely studied, both IL-17A and IL-17F are overexpressed in PsO, PsA, axSpA and HS. Therefore, dual inhibition of IL-17A and IL-17F could provide better outcomes than IL-23 or IL-17A blockade., Competing Interests: Author VN-C has served as a speaker, consultant, and/or instructor for: AbbVie, Eli Lilly and Company, Galapagos, Janssen, Moonlake, Novartis, Pfizer, and UCB Pharma; and has received grant and/or research support from AbbVie and Novartis. Author LP has received consultancy and/or speaker’s honoraria from and/or participated in clinical trials and/or research projects sponsored by AbbVie, Almirall, Amgen, Biogen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Janssen, LEO Pharma, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Sandoz, Sanofi, and UCB. Author SV has received speaker’s honoraria and participated in projects sponsored by Bayer, Janssen, LEO Pharma, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi and UCB. Author JR has received consultancy and/or speaker’s honoraria from Abbvie, UCB, Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer, Amgen and Lilly and/or participated in clinical trials and/or research projects sponsored by Pfizer, Novartis and Janssen. Author ML-V has received consultancy and/or speaker’s honoraria from and/or participated in clinical trials and/or research projects sponsored by AbbVie, Almirall, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, Janssen, Kyowa Kirian, LEO Pharma, Lilly, Novartis, and UCB. Author CF-C has received consultancy and/or speaker’s honoraria and participated in clinical trials and/or research projects sponsored by AbbVie, Janssen, Lilly, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, the Spanish Society of Rheumatology and UCB. Author RA has received consultancy and/or speaker’s honoraria from and/or participated in clinical trials and/or research projects sponsored by AbbVie, Almirall, Amgen, Galápagos, Gebro, Janssen, Lilly, MSD, Nordimet, Novartis, Pfizer and UCB. Author JP has received consultancy and/or speaker’s honoraria from and/or participated in clinical trials and/or research projects sponsored by Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer, MSD, Lilly, Amgen, BMS, AbbVie, and UCB. Author EG-A has received consultancy and/or speaker’s honoraria from and/or participated in clinical trials and/or research projects sponsored by AbbVie, MSD, Roche, Amgen, Janssen, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer and UCB. Author PZ has received consultancy and/or speaker’s honoraria from and/or participated in clinical trials and/or research projects sponsored by AbbVie, Celgene, Galapagos, Janssen, Lilly, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer and UCB. Author BJ has received consultancy fees from Amgen, UCB and Janssen; has received speaker’s honoraria from Lilly, Abbvie and Janssen; has participated in clinical trials and/or research projects sponsored by Janssen, Lilly, Bristol Myers Squibb, Abbvie; has received support for attending congress from Novartis, Pfizer, UCB. Author JG has received consultancy and/or speaker’s honoraria from and/or participated in clinical trials and/or research projects sponsored by Novartis, UCB, Pfizer, BMS, MSD, AbbVie, Lilly, Janssen, AstraZeneca and Galápagos. Author XJ has received consultancy and/or speaker’s honoraria from and/or participated in clinical trials and/or research projects sponsored by AbbVie, Lilly, MSD, Nordic Pharma, Novartis, Pfizer and UCB. Author RB has received grants/research supports from Abbvie, MSD, and Roche, and had consultation fees/participation in company-sponsored speaker´s bureau from Abbvie, Pfizer, Roche, Bristol-Myers, Lilly, Janssen, and MSD. Author SA has received consultancy and/or speaker’s honoraria from and/or participated in clinical trials and/or research projects sponsored by AbbVie, Almirall, Janssen, LEO Pharma, Lilly, Novartis and UCB. Author JS has received consultancy and/or speaker’s honoraria from and/or participated in clinical trials and/or research projects sponsored by AbbVie, UCB, Novartis, Amgen, Pfizer and Janssen-Cilag. Author RQ has received consultancy and/or speaker’s honoraria from and/or participated in clinical trials and/or research projects sponsored by Novartis, Janssen, UCB, Pfizer, Amgen, MSD, Eli-Lilly and AbbVie. Author JC has received consultancy and/or speaker’s honoraria from and/or participated in clinical trials and/or research projects sponsored by AbbVie, Almirall, Biogen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Fresenius, Janssen, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Sandoz and UCB., (Copyright © 2023 Navarro-Compán, Puig, Vidal, Ramírez, Llamas-Velasco, Fernández-Carballido, Almodóvar, Pinto, Galíndez-Aguirregoikoa, Zarco, Joven, Gratacós, Juanola, Blanco, Arias-Santiago, Sanz Sanz, Queiro and Cañete.)

Introduction: Patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) have a high disease burden mainly due to the rheumatic disease itself, and also exhibit accelerated atherosclerosis, that leads to a higher incidence of cardiovascular (CV) disease. Accordingly, the identification of biomarkers of CV risk and inflammation in axSpA patients is clinically relevant. In this sense, given the beneficial functions exerted by the adipomyokine irisin in processes related to CV disease and inflammation, our aim was to assess, for the first time, the role of irisin as a genetic and serological biomarker of subclinical atherosclerosis, CV risk and disease severity in axSpA patients., Methods: A large cohort of 725 Spanish patients with axSpA was included. Subclinical atherosclerosis (presence of plaques and abnormal carotid intima-media thickness values) was evaluated by carotid ultrasound. Four irisin polymorphisms (rs16835198 G/T, rs3480 A/G, rs726344 G/A, and rs1570569 G/T) were genotyped by TaqMan probes. Additionally, serum irisin levels were determined by ELISA., Results: Low irisin levels were linked to the presence of plaques (p=0.002) and atherogenic index values ≥4 (p=0.01). Serum irisin were positively correlated with C-peptide levels (p<0.001) and negatively correlated with visual analogue scale and Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Metrology Index (p<0.05 in all the cases). Moreover, lower irisin levels were observed in patients with sacroiliitis and in those with a negative HLA-B27 status (p<0.001 and p=0.006, respectively), as well as in those treated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (p<0.001 and p=0.002, respectively). Interestingly, the TT genotype and the T allele of rs16835198 were less frequent in axSpA patients with ASDAS >2.1 (Odds Ratio (OR): 0.48 [0.28-0.83] and OR: 0.73 [0.57-0.92], respectively, p=0.01 in both cases). Additionally, the frequency of rs1570569 T allele was higher in these patients (OR: 1.46 [1.08-1.97], p=0.01). Furthermore, the GGGT haplotype was more frequent in patients with ASDAS values >2.1 (OR: 1.73 [1.13-2.66], p=0.01)., Conclusions: Our results indicate that low serum irisin levels could be indicators of the presence of subclinical atherosclerosis, high CV risk and more severe disease in axSpA patients. In addition, irisin may also constitute a genetic biomarker of disease activity in axSpA., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Remuzgo-Martínez, Rueda-Gotor, Pulito-Cueto, López-Mejías, Corrales, Lera-Gómez, Pérez-Fernández, Portilla, González-Mazón, Blanco, Expósito, Mata, Llorca, Hernández-Hernández, Rodríguez-Lozano, Barbarroja, Ortega-Castro, Vicente, Fernández-Carballido, Martínez-Vidal, Castro-Corredor, Anino-Fernández, Peiteado, Plasencia-Rodríguez, Galíndez-Agirregoikoa, García-Vivar, Vegas-Revenga, Urionaguena, Gualillo, Quevedo-Abeledo, Castañeda, Ferraz-Amaro, González-Gay and Genre.)