Regulating Rheumatoid Arthritis From the Perspective of Metabolomics: A Comprehensive Review

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a severe inflammatory autoimmune disease with metabolic changes. RA patients have abnormalities in glycolysis, amino acid metabolism, choline metabolism, and fatty acid synthesis. The differential metabolites in individuals of RA patients and animal models were explored to find the potential biomarkers for the risk prediction, diagnosis, and prognosis of RA in the perspective of metabolism. Moreover, we discussed the changes of related metabolites after treatment with anti-rheumatic drugs, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and potential metabolites for the treatment of RA to explore promising metabolites. In addition, the immunological mechanism of TCM in the treatment of RA from the perspective of metabolism was also clarified. For the perspectives of research and application of the beneficial metabolites in clinic, relevant technologies and focuses for the future studies in the field have been proposed accordingly.