Aernoud Fiolet

262 Chapter 10 PFDR=0.025), and tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member 13B (r=0.230; PFDR=0.023).The change inmeasured serumproteinswas not correlated with baseline high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (all PFDR>0.05). Whereas this implies that colchicine affects a wide array of circulating proteins independent of C-reactive protein, the small sample size and short colchicine exposure preclude definitive conclusions. This study has several limitations. Paired testing was performed without a parallel control group. The observations may be partially unrelated to colchicine therapy or attributable to chance, although statistical significance remained robust after correction for multiple testing. Olink panels include preselected inflammatory proteins, which creates selection bias; a wider array could measure a wider effect of colchicine. Olink panels also measure relative values, with uncertain clinical relevance if overall protein expression is low. The results of this exploratory study should be confirmed in future clinical trials. In this open-label study, a significant reduction occurred in 37 serum proteins after treatment with low-dose colchicine in patients with chronic coronary artery disease, underscoring a marked anti-inflammatory effect stretching beyond the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway and suggesting an important role of neutrophil inhibition.