Methods for predicting drug sensitivity in patients afflicted with an inflammatory disease

1. A method for diagnosing responders to a drug for treating a TNFα- and IL-1β-induced inflammatory disease from non-responders to the drug, comprising:

a) obtaining a sample of cells from a human patient, wherein the sample is not exposed to the drug;

b) optionally inducing a pro-inflammatory-like state by treating the sample with specific cytokines/mediators;

c) obtaining a gene expression profile from the sample; and

d) comparing the gene expression profile of the sample with a reference gene expression profile indicative of responsiveness to the drug obtained from one or more patients who are responsive to the drug and/or a reference gene expression profile indicative of non-responsiveness to the drug obtained from one or more patients who are non-responsive to the drug,

wherein similarity between the sample expression profile and a reference expression profile predicts whether the patient is a responder or non-responder to the drug for treating the TNFα- and IL-1β-induced inflammatory disease.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the inflammatory disease is selected from the group consisting of: asthma, atopy, rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile chronic arthritis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease and sepsis.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the atopic inflammatory disease is selected from the group consisting of: rhinitis, conjunctivitis, dermatitis and eczema.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the drug is selected from a class of drugs selected from the group consisting of: corticosteroids, β2-agonists and leukotriene antagonists for asthma.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the drug is selected from the group consisting of symptom relievers and anti-inflammatory drugs for a TNFα- and IL-1β-induced inflammatory disease condition.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sample of cells is obtained from peripheral blood mononuclear cells or neutrophils.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sample is obtained via biopsy from synovial membrane or airway smooth muscle.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein a hybridization assay to oligonucleotides contained in a microarray is used to determine the sample gene expression profile.

9. The method of claim 8 comprising using hybridization probes that hybridize to polynucleotides corresponding to informative genes and reagents for detecting hybridization.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference expression profile is that of cells obtained from non-asthmatic patients.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference expression profile is that of cells obtained from patients who do not have a TNFα- and IL-1β-induced inflammatory disease.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference expression profile is that of cells obtained from asthmatic patients.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference expression profile is that of cells obtained from patients who have a TNFα- and IL-1β-induced inflammatory disease.

14. A method for diagnosing responders to a glucocorticoid drug for treating asthma from non-responders to the drug, comprising:

a) obtaining a sample of cells from an asthmatic patient, wherein the sample is not exposed to the drug;

b) optionally inducing a pro-inflammatory-like state by treating the sample with specific cytokines/mediators;

c) obtaining a gene expression profile from the sample; and

d) comparing the gene expression profile of the sample with a reference gene expression profile indicative of glucocorticoid responsiveness obtained from one or more patients who are responsive and/or a reference gene expression profile indicative of glucocorticoid non-responsiveness obtained from one or more patients who are non-responsive to the glucocorticoid,

wherein similarity between the sample expression profile and a reference expression profile predicts whether the patient is responsive or not to the glucocorticoid.

15. A method for diagnosing responders to a leukotriene antagonist drug for treating asthma from non-responders to the drug, comprising:

a) obtaining a sample of cells from an asthmatic patient;

b) optionally inducing a pro-inflammatory-like state by treating the sample with specific cytokines/mediators;

c) obtaining a gene expression profile from the sample; and

d) comparing the gene expression profile of the sample with a reference gene expression profile indicative of leukotriene antagonist responsiveness obtained from one or more patients who are responsive and/or a reference gene expression profile indicative of leukotriene antagonist non-responsiveness obtained from one or more patients who are non-responsive to the leukotriene antagonist,

wherein similarity between the sample expression profile and a reference expression profile predicts whether the patient is responsive or not to the leukotriene antagonist.

16. A method for diagnosing responders to a drug for treating a TNFα- and IL-1β-induced inflammatory disease from non-responders to the drug, comprising:

a) obtaining a sample of cells from a human patient, wherein the sample is not exposed to the drug;

b) inducing a pro-inflammatory-like state by treating the sample with specific cytokines/mediators;

c) obtaining a gene expression profile from the sample; and

d) comparing the gene expression profile of the sample with a reference gene expression profile indicative of responsiveness to the drug obtained from one or more patients who are responsive to the drug and/or a reference gene expression profile indicative of non-responsiveness to the drug obtained from one or more patients who are non-responsive to the drug,

wherein similarity between the sample expression profile and a reference expression profile predicts whether the patient is a responder or non-responder to the drug for treating the TNFα- and IL-1β-induced inflammatory disease.