Raquel López-Mejías

Dr. Raquel López-Mejías


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

2Years (2025-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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VCVerónics Pulito Cueto
Verónics Pulito Cueto
BABelén Atienza-Mateo
Belén Atienza-Mateo
JBJoao Carlos Batista-Liz
Joao Carlos Batista-Liz
RNRebeca Nieto-Nieto
Rebeca Nieto-Nieto
CVClara Vaquera-Illescas
Clara Vaquera-Illescas
RLRaquel López-Mejías
Raquel López-Mejías
An early and accurate diagnosis of connective tissue diseases-related interstitial lung disease (CTD-ILD) is crucial for delaying lung fibrosis, but its unknown etiology and the limitations of clinical tools make it challenging for clinicians. PDGF and TGFB are the main profibrotic genes. We evaluated PDGFA, TGFB1, TGFB2, and TGFB3 role in the diagnosis of ILD associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic sclerosis (SSc), and inflammatory myopathies (IM). Blood was collected from 289 patients:33 RA-ILD, 31 SSc-ILD, 29 IM-ILD; and 22 RA-nonILD, 18 SSc-nonILD, 8 IM-nonILD; and 148 idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The relative expression was quantified by qPCR. Lower PDGFA, TGFB1, and TGFB2 expression differentiated RA-ILD from RA-nonILD patients, acting as ILD early diagnostic biomarkers in RA with cut-offs of <0.01153, <0.3185, and <0.001410, respectively. SSc-ILD patients revealed decreased TGFB2 expression compared to SSc-nonILD patients, with a cut-off of 0.0166 and >0.001547, respectively. PDGFA and TGFB2, as well as TGFB2 and TGFB3 expression were associated with RA-ILD and SSc-ILD prognosis, respectively. PDGFA and TGFB are promising blood biomarkers with clinical value for the early and accurate CTD-ILD diagnosis.