REVISITING AUTOANTIBODY PROFILES IN SYSTEMIC LUPUS-ERYTHEMATOSUS

Objective. To obtain more definitive assays of the spectrum of soluble autoantigens targeted by individual patients with systemic lupus eryt hematosus (SLE) and to determine whether the autoimmune response is re stricted in specificity. Although there are many reports of a broad sp ectrum of autoantibody specificities in SLE, none has considered the d iversity of autoantibody sets, which may more accurately describe the autoimmune response. Methods. Sera of 68 patients with SLE were assaye d for autoantibodies by ELISA and/or immuno-precipitation. Specificiti es were grouped into sets, including double stranded (ds) DNA and/or h istone, U1 RNP and/or Sm, Ro and/or La, ribosomes, Ku, Ki, and others. An analysis was also performed of reported SLE autoantibody profiles. Results. The prevalences of autoantibody sets included: dsDNA and/or histone, 59%; U1 RNP and/or Sm, 40%; Ro and/or La, 41%; ribosomes, 4.4 %; Ku, 4.4%; Ki, 2.9%. On average, autoantibody positive patients had 2-3 autoantibodies (median = 2) and about 2-3 autoantibody sets (media n = 2), consistent with a retrospective analysis of past studies. Conc lusion. Immune dysregulation in SLE generally involves a multiplicity of autoantibody specificities. These data further support a model in w hich global immune dysregulation in SLE leads to organ-nonspecific aut oimmunity against particular ubiquitous autoantigens.