Circulating antibodies to prothymosin alpha in systemic lupus erythematosus.
Autoantibodies to prothymosin alpha, an immunoactive protein that exists in a large variety of mammalian tissues, were found to be present in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) by a new, sensitive, and specific anti-prothymosin alpha ELISA. The antigen was prothymosin alpha, purified by high-pressure liquid chromatography from goat spleen extracts. Sera from 44 SLE patients and 276 healthy individuals were screened for the presence of anti-prothymosin alpha activity; 18% of SLE sera were found to be positive, compared with 1.8% of control sera. This anti-prothymosin alpha activity appears to be idiotypically distinct from either anti-thymosin alpha 1 activity or anti-dsDNA activity, as demonstrated by inhibition experiments. Significant positive correlation exists between anti-prothymosin alpha and anti-dsDNA activities of SLE sera (r = +0.596, n = 36, P less than 0.001), while no correlation was observed with the clinical activity (X2 = 1.239, 0.1 less than P less than 0.5) or with complement levels C3 and C4.
Vlachoyiannopoulos
P G
PG
Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School, University of Ioannina, Greece.
Frillingos
S
S
Tzioufas
A G
AG
Seferiadis
K
K
Moutsopoulos
H M
HM
Tsolas
O
O
D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear / Q000276:immunology; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000276:immunology*; D001324:Autoantigens / Q000276:immunology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006801:Humans; D007130:Immunoglobulin Idiotypes / Q000032:analysis; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000276:immunology*; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000276:immunology*; D013947:Thymosin / Q000276:immunology / Q000031:analogs & derivatives
D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear; D001323:Autoantibodies; D001324:Autoantigens; D007130:Immunoglobulin Idiotypes; D011498:Protein Precursors; C040782:prothymosin alpha; D013947:Thymosin