title: Presence of autoantibodies against small nuclear ribonucleoprotein epitopes in Chagas' patients' sera.
abstract: We investigated the possibility that Chagas' patients develop an autoimmune response to human UsnRNPs (small nuclear ribonucleoprotein) or Sm epitopes. Using purified human UsnRNPs, we detected anti-human UsnRNPs antibodies in sera from patients suffering from Chagas' disease. The antibodies were also detected using peptide enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays containing the Sm-motif 1 domain. The latter technique showed that 61% (31/51) of the Chagas' patients' sera contained antibodies against Sm-motif 1. The detection of anti-UsnRNPs autoantibodies in Chagas' patients' sera strongly encourages further studies using animal models to determine how these autoantibodies appear.
authors.affiliation: CID-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain. mbebmc@cid.csic.es
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bach-Elias
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bahia
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Teixeira
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Cicarelli
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D015551:Autoimmunity; D015153:Blotting, Western; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000276:immunology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D017411:Ribonucleoproteins, Small Nuclear / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D000939:Epitopes; D017411:Ribonucleoproteins, Small Nuclear