Autoantibody explosion in systemic lupus erythematosus: More than 100 different antibodies found in SLE patients

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Objective

Description of the various autoantibodies that can be detected in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Methods

A literature review, using the terms “autoantibody” and “systemic lupus erythematosus”, was conducted to search for articles on autoantibodies in SLE, their target antigens, association with disease activity, or other clinical associations.

Results

One hundred sixteen autoantibodies were described in SLE patients. These include autoantibodies that target nuclear antigens, cytoplasmic antigens, cell membrane antigens, phospholipid-associated antigens, blood cells, endothelial cells, and nervous system antigens, plasma proteins, matrix proteins, and miscellaneous antigens. The target of autoantibody, the autoantigen properties, autoantibody frequencies in SLE, as well as clinical associations, and correlation with disease activity are described for all 116 autoantibodies.

Conclusions

SLE is the autoimmune disease with the largest number of detectable autoantibodies. Their production could be antigen-driven, the result of polyclonal B cell activation, impaired apoptotic pathways, or the outcome of idiotypic network dysregulation.

Section snippets

Methods

The English-language medical literature was searched for original articles describing autoantibodies in SLE. Using Medline, the search words used were “autoantibody” and “systemic lupus erythematosus” and the years searched were 1960 to 2001. The aim was to describe the various autoantibodies with respect to their target, the properties of the autoantigens targeted by these autoantibodies, and the prevalence of each of the autoantibodies in SLE, to determine if their presence or titers

Results

The literature search disclosed 116 different autoantibodies reported in SLE. Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, Table 4, Table 5, Table 6, Table 7, Table 8, Table 9, Table 10 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85,

Discussion

In this article we summarized the diversity of autoantibodies in SLE. It is obvious that some autoantibodies are directed to nuclear and cytoplasmic macromolecules and to cell membranes, while others react with lipid components or attach to the cardiac conduction system. The antibodies differ in their binding characteristics and in their prevalence. Some are frequent such as anti-dsDNA, which nearly always appears in one stage or another of the disease (13, 14), while others have been described

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  • Cited by (0)

    Y. Sherer and A. Gorstein contributed equally to this work.

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