“Our data support that citrullination modifies antigens … and confers immune stimulatory properties on those antigens,” Dr. Robinson said.
Researchers are “using our antibody repertoire sequencing as a key tool to elucidate the antibodies generated in the active immune response in RA. We are generating recombinant versions of these antibodies and using them as molecular tools to probe and define the pathways mediated by synovitis in individuals with RA,” he said.
Paul Eggleton, PhD, senior lecturer in immunology at the University of Exeter, U.K., focused his presentation on the role of anti-C1q antibodies in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and said that use of these antibodies in the next several years “may be useful for diagnosis of lupus.”
Dr. Eggleton discussed how post-translational modifications play a role in protein functioning. These modifications are associated with hydroxylation, glycosylation and citrullination in RA, and with phosphylation and mannosylation in SLE.
In his presentation on the relevance of metabolomics to autoimmune disease, Stephen Young, PhD, from Birmingham University, U.K., said that “genomics and proteomics can tell you what might happen, but metabolomics tells you what actually did happen.”
In his research on the effect of inflammation on metabolomic profiles in patients with arthritis, Dr. Young and colleagues demonstrated that the metabolic alterations that can be measured in peripheral blood can provide insight into the disease mechanisms of patients with RA.4 Their research found that the serum metabolic fingerprint of individuals with established RA who had not been exposed to DMARD therapy is different from that of patients without RA and that this fingerprint varies depending on the level of inflammation. Decreased NMR lipid signals were particularly discriminatory between the groups. Elevation of 3-hydroxybutyrate was present in the patient with RA, which suggests an increased level of lipolysis in RA, they reported.
Kathy L. Holliman, MEd, is a medical writer based in Beverly, Mass.
Second Chance
IIf you missed this session, Advances in Molecular Profiling and Relevance to Autoimmune Disease, it’s not too late. Catch it on SessionSelect: http://acr.peachnewmedia.com/store/provider/provider09.php.
References
- Sokolove J, Bromberg R, Deane KD, et al. Autoantibody epitope spreading in the pre-clinical phase predicts progression to rheumatoid arthritis. PLoS ONE 2012;7(5):e35296. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0035296.
- Sokolove J, Sharpe O, Brennan M, et al. Citrullination within the atherosclerotic plaque: A potential target for the anti-citrullinated protein antibody response in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 2013;65(7):1719–1724.
- Tan YC, Kongpachith S, Blum LK, et al. Barcode-enabled sequencing of plasmablast antibody repertoires in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2014;66(1):2706–2715.
- Young SP, Kapoor SR, Viant MR, et al. The impact of inflammation on metabolomic profiles in patients with arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 2013;65(8):2015–2023.
