College of Medicine, University of Kufa discussed a Ph.D. thesis the gene expression of the autophagy-related genes Atg5 and Beclin-1 in rheumatoid arthritis patients by the postgraduate student, Mr. Imad Tahseen Muhammad.

The thesis aimed at determining whether the Beclin-1 and Atg5 genes in rheumatoid arthritis patients could serve as potential biomarkers for diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis and assessing disease activity according to DAS-28 ESR and DAS-28 CRP, and to investigate their correlation with other routine biomarkers.

The thesis demonstrated that both Beclin-1 and Atg5 play a role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis and that Beclin-1 plays an important role as a biomarker in the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis.

The thesis reviewed a significant positive correlation between the expression of Beclin-1 and Atg5 genes, as well as a significant positive correlation between the expression levels of Beclin-1 and Atg5 genes and RF and ACCP in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.