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Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease with joint involvement and extra-articular features. B cell depletion therapy based on Rituximab in rheumatoid arthritis was first used at University College London in 1998, describing two patterns of disease relapse after a good response to Rituximab: either occurring coincident with B-cell return (concordant relapse) or ´delayed´ occurring months after B-cell return (discordant relapse). B-cell activating factor (BAFF) and its receptors (BARR-receptor, TACI and BCMA) play an esential role in B-cell maturation, homeostasis and survival. The current thesis hypothesises that the two different patterns of relapse after B cell repopulation following Rituximab could be explained by differences in the expression of BAFF and its binding receptors.

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Dr Elena Becerra Fernández currently works as a rheumatologist and clinical researcher at a local hospital in Spain. She previously worked as a research fellow at University College London, UK, contributing to several studies in rheumatoid arthritis and B cell depletion therapy, and developing her thesis project and various scientific articles.

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