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Immune-mediated polyneuropathies like chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy or Guillain-Barré syndrome are rare diseases of the peripheral nervous system. A subgroup of patients harbors autoantibodies against nodal or paranodal antigens, associated with a distinct phenotype and treatment response. In a part of patients with pathologic paranodal or nodal immunoreactivity the autoantigens remain difficult or impossible to determine owing to limitations of the used detection approach - usually ELISAs (enzyme-linked-immunosorbent-assays) - and incomplete knowledge of the possible autoantigens. Due to their high-throughput, low sample consumption and high sensitivity as well as the possibility to display many putative nodal and paranodal autoantigens simultaneously, peptide microarray-based approaches are prime candidates for the discovery of novel autoantigens, point-of-care diagnostics and, in addition, monitoring of pathologic autoimmune response. Current applications of peptide microarrays are however limited by high false-positive rates and the associated need for detailed follow-up studies and validation. Here, robust peptide microarray-based detection of antibodies and the efficient validation of binding signals by on-chip neutralization is demonstrated. First, autoantigens were displayed as overlapping peptide libraries in microarray format. Copies of the biochips were used for the fine mapping of antibody epitopes. Next, binding signals were validated by antibody neutralization in solution. Since neutralizing peptides are obtained in the process of microarray fabrications, neither throughput nor costs are significantly altered. Similar in-situ validation approaches could contribute to future autoantibody characterization and detection methods as well as to therapeutic research. Areas of application could be expanded to any autoimmune-mediated neurological disease as a long-term vision.
Die lineare IgA Dermatose (LAD) ist eine subepidermal blasenbildende Erkrankung, die durch IgA-Ablagerungen an der kutanen Basalmembran charakterisiert ist. Die IgA-Antikörper von LAD-Seren reagieren mit einem 97 kDa Protein, das aus der Epidermis extrahiert werden kann, und einem 120 kDa Protein, das von kultivierten Keratinozyten in das Kulturmedium sezerniert wird. Beide Antigene stellen Fragmente der extrazellulären Domäne des 180 kDa bullösen Pemphigoid-Autoantigens (BP180, Typ XVII Kollagen) dar. Die vorliegende Studie ging der Frage nach, ob LAD-Seren mit der immunodominanten Region von BP180 (NC16A Region) unmittelbar an der Zellmemran der basalen Keratinozyten reagieren. Diese Region ist das Ziel der IgG-Antikörper im Serum der meisten Patienten mit bullösem Pemphigoid und Pemphigoid gestationis. Tatsächlich zeigte sich im Immunoblot bei 11 von 50 LAD-Patienten eine Reaktivität von IgA-Antikörpern mit einer rekombinanten Form von BP180 NC16A. Wir fanden bezüglich Alter, Geschlecht und immunfluoreszenzoptischer Befunde keine signifikanten Unterschiede zwischen der BP180 NC16A-positiven Gruppe verglichen mit der Gruppe er LAD-Patienten, die keine Reaktivität mit NC16A aufwiesen. Weitere studien sollten die pathogenetische Relevanz der gegen BP180 NC16A gerichteten IgA-Autoantikörper im Serum von LAD-Patienten untersuchen.