title: Ethnic differences in expression of susceptibility marker(s) in rheumatic fever/rheumatic heart disease patients.
abstract: The ability of monoclonal antibodies (MAb) against a human B lymphocyte alloantigen has been suggested to discriminate between rheumatic fever "susceptible" individuals and persons with a lower risk of developing RF. However, while such MAb have been reported to identify a majority of RF/RHD patients in some populations, a reduced discriminatory ability has been observed in others. Antigenic variation in the RF marker(s) may exist among ethnic groups which reduce the discriminatory ability of these monoclonal antibodies. We developed MAb using B lymphocytes from RF patients of North Indian ethnic origin. In this same population we compared the new MAb (PGI/MN II) with a previously described MAb of Caucasian ethnic origin (D8/17). In three groups: acute rheumatic fever patients (no evidence of previous attacks of rheumatic fever), patients with chronic rheumatic heart disease and normal controls from the same population, we found a greater discriminating ability of PGI/MNII MAb to identify Indian RF/RHD patients than with the D8/17 MAb. Further, sixty percent of 142 siblings of the RF/RHD patients were "positive" when tested with PGI/MN II. The data from these studies suggest that before such MAb can be used for identification of RF "susceptibles" in public health programs, variation among ethnic populations must be assessed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Medicine and Biotechnology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kaur
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grover
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Khanduja
authors.forename: E L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Kaplan
authors.forename: E D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.forename: N K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Ganguly
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002999:Clone Cells; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D005819:Genetic Markers; D005820:Genetic Testing; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D012213:Rheumatic Fever / Q000208:ethnology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D012214:Rheumatic Heart Disease / Q000208:ethnology / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D005819:Genetic Markers