Finally, we discovered a difference in whole blood in the RNA expression of THOP1, which was significantly lower in both treated and non-treated patients with RA, compared to healthy controls (Kruskal-Wallis test p = 0.001) and was confirmed in the COMBINE validation cohort (Kruskal-Wallis test p = 0.02), although there was only a trend towards a difference between the control group and non-treated patients (Fig. 3c). Here, THOP1 is linked to rheumatoid arthritis.