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Immune Responses To Homocitrullinated Protein/Peptide In Rheumatoid Arthritis, Mathias J. Scinocca
Immune Responses To Homocitrullinated Protein/Peptide In Rheumatoid Arthritis, Mathias J. Scinocca
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Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory autoimmune disease which causes joint destruction. RA pathogenesis involves citrullinated peptides binding to the shared epitope (SE) during autoantigen presentation, and subsequent Anti-Citrulline Antibody (ACA) production. Their target, citrulline, is very similar to homocitrulline.
The main objective of this study was to investigate anti-homocitrulline immune responses in RA. Specifically, it investigated if: i) Anti-Homocitrulline Antibodies (AHA) were RA specific by screening patients with various inflammatory rheumatic diseases and healthy individuals. ii) ACA also bound homocitrulline by affinity purification and characterization. iii) anti-homocitrulline immune responses involved the SE by computer modelling and immunization of mice. …