Identification and experimental validation of CD74, PGLYRP1, and TXN as potential biomarkers in rheumatoid arthritis: an integrative bulk and ScRNA-seq study

By
Yun Zheng
Tihui Wang
Jiyue Huang
Peng Niu
Xiu Yang
Jie Xiao
Guanyin Wu
Xiaotang Sun
Jinquan Li
Hui Wang
June 23, 2026
0 min

Frontiers In Immunology

Objective:

To discover biomarkers associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and delineate their functional mechanisms, addressing the limitations of current biomarkers.

Approach:

Key Findings:

CD74, PGLYRP1, and TXN were identified as potential biomarkers for RA, with CD56dim natural killer cells showing a positive correlation with CD74 (cor = 0.66, P < 0.001) and a negative correlation with TXN (cor = -0.75, P < 0.001).

Interpretation:

The study integrates bulk RNA sequencing with scRNA-seq to identify CD74, PGLYRP1, and TXN as biomarkers.

Limitations:

The study relies on publicly available datasets, which may have inherent biases that could affect the findings.
The clinical validation was performed on a pilot scale, which may limit the generalizability of the results.