title: New autoantibodies in early rheumatoid arthritis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory joint disease causing articular cartilage and bone destruction. Since irreversible joint destruction can be prevented by intervention at the early stages of disease, early diagnosis of RA is important. In this study, we identified new autoantibodies in the sera of patients with early (less than one year) RA.
  
  
  METHODS
  We screened the sera of 20 RA patients with disease duration less than one year, 19 RA patients with disease duration more than five years and 23 controls on 8,268 human protein arrays. We confirmed the validity of protein array detection by ELISA assays. We then performed epitope mapping with overlapping 15-mers to analyze RA sera reactivity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  WIBG (within BGCN homolog (Drosophila)), GABARAPL2 (GABA(A) receptor associated protein like 2) and ZNF706 (zinc finger protein 706) proteins are preferentially recognized by autoantibodies from early RA patients. Of interest, autoantibodies to WIBG are very specific for early RA. Indeed, 33% of early RA patients' sera recognize WIBG versus 5% of RA patients with disease duration more than 5 years and 2% of controls. We identified three linear peptides on WIBG GABARAPL2 and ZNF706 that are preferentially recognized by sera of early RA patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We identified new autoantibodies associated with RA with disease duration less than one year. These autoantibodies could be used as diagnosis markers in RA patients.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Charpin
authors.forename: Fanny
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Arnoux
authors.forename: Marielle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Toussirot
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Balandraud
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wendling
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Diot
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Roudier
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Auger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology*; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D001324:Autoantigens / Q000276:immunology; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D018604:Epitope Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D040081:Protein Array Analysis
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D001324:Autoantigens; D015415:Biomarkers