New autoantibody detection technologies yield novel insights into autoimmune disease (original) (raw)

Autoantibody profiling for the study and treatment of autoimmune disease

Arthritis research, 2002

Proteomics technologies enable profiling of autoantibody responses using biological fluids derived from patients with autoimmune disease. They provide a powerful tool to characterize autoreactive B-cell responses in diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune diabetes, and systemic lupus erythematosus. Autoantibody profiling may serve purposes including classification of individual patients and subsets of patients based on their 'autoantibody fingerprint', examination of epitope spreading and antibody isotype usage, discovery and characterization of candidate autoantigens, and tailoring antigen-specific therapy. In the coming decades, proteomics technologies will broaden our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of and will further our ability to diagnose, prognosticate and treat autoimmune disease.

Autoantigen microarrays for multiplex characterization of autoantibody responses

Nature Medicine, 2002

We constructed miniaturized autoantigen arrays to perform large-scale multiplex characterization of autoantibody responses directed against structurally diverse autoantigens, using submicroliter quantities of clinical samples. Autoantigen microarrays were produced by attaching hundreds of proteins, peptides and other biomolecules to the surface of derivatized glass slides using a robotic arrayer. Arrays were incubated with patient serum, and spectrally resolvable fluorescent labels were used to detect autoantibody binding to specific autoantigens on the array. We describe and characterize arrays containing the major autoantigens in eight distinct human autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. This represents the first report of application of such technology to multiple human disease sera, and will enable validated detection of antibodies recognizing autoantigens including proteins, peptides, enzyme complexes, ribonucleoprotein complexes, DNA and post-translationally modified antigens. Autoantigen microarrays represent a powerful tool to study the specificity and pathogenesis of autoantibody responses, and to identify and define relevant autoantigens in human autoimmune diseases.

Autoantibodies 2015: From diagnostic biomarkers toward prediction, prognosis and prevention

Autoimmunity Reviews, 2015

At the 12 th International Workshop on Autoantibodies and Autoimmunity (IWAA), organized in August 2014 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, more than 300 autoimmunologists gathered to discuss the status of many novel autoantibodies in clinical practice, and to envisage additional value of autoantibodies in terms of prediction, prognosis and prevention of autoimmune diseases. Two separate workshops were dedicated to standardization and harmonization of autoantibody testing and nomenclature: International Autoantibody Standardization (IAS) and International Consensus on ANA Patterns). It was apparent to all in attendance that the discovery and elucidation of novel autoantibodies not slowed down, but that multiple challenges lay ahead of us in order to apply these discoveries to effective and efficient clinical practice. Importantly, this requires optimal bidirectional communication between clinicians and laboratory specialists, as well as close collaboration with the diagnostic industry. This paper is a report on the 12 th IWAA in combination with a review of the recent developments in the field of autoantibodies.

Standards for autoantibody testing; Addressing future needs for autoimmune disease and cancer diagnosis

Cancer Biomarkers, 2005

It is widely held that determination of increased levels of serum autoantibodies can play an important role in the diagnosis and, in some cases, management of many autoimmune diseases. It is also widely held that such testing is fraught with problems relating to accuracy and detection of clinically relevant autoantibodies. Attempts to standardize autoantibody testing by making available standard reference sera, have helped to some degree to improve the testing. Nevertheless, problems still exist and may be causing the delayed diagnosis of severely debilitating and sometimes fatal autoimmune diseases. This paper discusses current practice, as well as, possible new approaches intended to make more robust, autoantibody determinations in all fields of medicine.

High-throughput multiplexed autoantibody detection to screen type 1 diabetes and multiple autoimmune diseases simultaneously

EBioMedicine

Background: Islet autoantibodies (IAbs) are the most reliable biomarkers to assess risk of progression to clinical type 1 diabetes (T1D). There are four major biochemically defined IAbs currently used in clinical trials that are equally important for disease prediction. The current screening methods use a radio-binding assay (RBA) for single IAb measurement, which are laborious and inefficient for large-scale screening. More importantly, up to 40% of patients with T1D have other autoimmune conditions that can be identified through relevant autoantibody testing. Thus, there is a need to screen for T1D and other autoimmune diseases simultaneously. Methods: Based on our well-established electrochemiluminescence (ECL) assay platform, we developed a multiplexed ECL assay that combines 7 individual autoantibody assays together in one single well to simultaneously screen T1D, and three other autoimmune diseases including celiac disease, autoimmune thyroid disease and autoimmune poly-glandular syndrome-1 (APS-1). The 7-Plex ECL assay was extensively validated against single antibody measurements including a standard RBA and single ECL assay. Findings: The 7-Plex ECL assay was well correlated to each single ECL autoantibody assay and each RBA. Interpretation: The multiplexed ECL assay provides high sensitivity and disease specificity, along with high throughput and a low cost for large-scale screenings of T1D and other relevant autoimmune diseases in the general population.

The Utilization of Autoantibodies in Approaches to Precision Health

Frontiers in Immunology

Precision health (PH) applied to autoimmune disease will need paradigm shifts in the use and application of autoantibodies and other biomarkers. For example, autoantibodies combined with other multi-analyte "omic" profiles will form the basis of disease prediction allowing for earlier intervention linked to disease prevention strategies, as well as earlier, effective and personalized interventions for established disease. As medical intervention moves to disease prediction and a model of "intent to PREVENT," diagnostics will include an early symptom/risk-based, as opposed to a disease-based approach. Newer diagnostic platforms that utilize emerging megatrends such as deep learning and artificial intelligence and close the gaps in autoantibody diagnostics will benefit from paradigm shifts thereby facilitating the PH agenda.

Development of a “reverse capture” autoantibody microarray for studies of antigen-autoantibody profiling

PROTEOMICS, 2006

Diagnosing cancers based on serum profiling is a particularly attractive concept. However, the technical challenges to analysis of the serum proteome arise from the dynamic range of protein amounts. Cancer sera contain antibodies that react with a unique group of autologous cellular antigens, which affords a dramatic amplification of signal in the form of antibodies relative to the amount of the corresponding antigens. The serum autoantibody repertoire from cancer patients might, therefore, be exploited for antigen-antibody profiling. To date, studies of antigen-antibody reactivity using microarrays have relied on recombinant proteins or synthetic peptides as arrayed features. However, recombinant proteins and/or synthetic peptides may fail to accurately detect autoantibody binding due to the lack of proper PTMs. Here we describe the development and use of a "reverse capture" autoantibody microarray. Our "reverse capture" autoantibody microarray is based on the dual-antibody sandwich immunoassay platform of ELISA, which allows the antigens to be immobilized in their native configuration. As "proof-of-principle", we demonstrate its use for antigen-autoantibody profiling with sera from patients with prostate cancer and benign prostate hyperplasia.

Autoantibody diagnostics in clinical practice

Autoimmunity Reviews, 2012

Disease associated autoantibodies (AAB) are important biomarkers not only to confirm the diagnosis of the respective systemic autoimmune disease but also to diagnose the disease at very early stages (mono-or oligosymptomatic manifestations) or to diagnose the respective disease without the typical clinical manifestations (atypical forms). A confirmation of the diagnosis in early stages is required, if patients should benefit from early therapeutic intervention. Furthermore, AAB determinations are used for prognostic purposes and for monitoring of disease activity or response to therapy. For the advancement of autoantibody diagnostics in clinical practice the following aspects have to be considered: (i) The search for novel clinically relevant AAB and the identification of autoantigenic targets of AAB broadened the spectrum of autoimmune diagnostics and permit the diagnosis of former idiopathic diseases. (ii) To obtain steady diagnostic variables of clinically relevant AAB, the evaluation studies have to be standardized. (iii) Several special features and novel developments of autoantibody diagnostics make correct interpretation of antibody test results increasingly difficult. (iv) Beside standardization of AAB detection methods and quality management efforts the improvement of autoantibody diagnostics depends on further development of diagnostic algorithms including cost-effective multiparametric analyses.

Genetic and Functional Characterization of Human Autoantibodies Using Combinatorial Phage Display Libraries

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2008

The study of human autoantibody responses has been hampered by the limitations that conventional hybridoma technology imposes on the generation of human monoclonal antibodies. This is even more significant for some autoantibodies for which the frequency of specific B-cell precursors is very low. For instance, the frequency of B-cell precursors for the SLE-specific anti-Smith antibodies (anti-Sm) has been shown to be less than 1 : 30,000 splenocytes in the autoimmune MRL\ Ipr\lpr mice and undetectable in normal mice even after LPS stimulation. This situation is in marked contrast with the higher precursor frequency established for most autoantigens including DNA ( 1 : 5,000).' As a consequence, only five human IgM anti-Sm antibodies and no IgG anti-Sm antibodies have been thus far generated. In order to circumvent these limitations, we have applied newly developed in uitro technology, namely combinatorial phage display libraries, to the generation of human monoclonal autoantibodies. In this paper, we demonstrate that this approach is capable of generating functional human autoantibodies from peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and myasthenia gravis (MG).