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Patients with Sjögren’s syndrome and certain antibodies have greater disease activity
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Disease activity was higher in patients with Sjögren’s syndrome who also had certain autoantibodies, which were significantly associated with the presence of anti-Ro60, anti-Ro52, anti-La, rheumatoid factor and hypergammaglobulinemia, as well as higher ocular surface staining scores, lower Schirmer’s test scores and minor labial salivary gland biopsy focus scores of 3 or higher, according to recently published research.
Researchers studied 235 patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) and 50 control participants without autoimmune disease from the Oklahoma Sjögren’s Syndrome Center of Research Translation. Patient evaluation data available included measurements of autoantibodies, ocular surface staining, Schirmer’s test, minor salivary gland biopsy and whole unstimulated saliva flow. A quantitative immunoprecipitation assay was used to determine the presence of autoantibodies reactive with Ro52 and tri-partite motif-2-containing protein 38 (TRIM38), and were identified in 24 of 234 patients.
Statistical analysis was used to determine the associations between anti-TRIM38 antibodies and disease activity. Higher van Bijsterveld scores and lower Schirmer’s test scores were observed in patients positive for TRIM38 autoantibodies compared with participants who were negative. A trend toward higher minor labia salivary gland focus scores was observed in positive patients, but this fining did not reach statistical significance. However, a higher prevalence of focus scores of 3 or higher was observed in participants with anti-TRIM38 antibodies (75%) compared to patients with negative anti-TRIM38 status (46.5%).
Positivity for TRIM38 antibodies was also associated with anti-Ro, anti-La, hyper-immunoglobulin (Ig) G and hyper IgA, but was not associated with other factors, such as age at enrollment, high levels of IGM or low levels of complement. – by Shirley Pulawski
Disclosure s : The research was supported by NIH grants U54-GM-104938, P30-AR-053483, P30-GM-103510 and U19-AI-082714. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
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