Such hypothesis was introduced by Pauley et al. [43] who observed a significant increase of miR-146a in PBMCs from rheumatoid arthritis patients, particularly among subjects with active disease; in contrast, no differences in TRAF6 or IRAK1 level, i.e. potential targets of miRNA-146a, were found between patients and controls. Here, TRAF6 is linked to rheumatoid arthritis.