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Autoantibody profile in sarcoidosis, analysis from the GRADS sarcoidosis cohort
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Autoantibody profile in sarcoidosis, analysis from the GRADS sarcoidosis cohort

Basheer Khassawneh, Chengsong Zhu, Briana Barkes, Brian Vestal, Sarah Shrock, May Gillespie, Karin Pacheco, Kevin D Deane, Lisa A Maier, Quan-Zhen Li, …
PloS one, Vol.17(10), pp.e0274381-e0274381
01/01/2022
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274381
PMCID: PMC9584415
PMID: 36264970
url
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274381View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

BACKGROUNDSarcoidosis, a multi-systemic granulomatous disease, is a predominantly T-cell disease but evidence for a role for humoral immunity in disease pathogenesis is growing. Utilizing samples from the Genomic Research in Alpha-1 anti-trypsin Deficiency and Sarcoidosis (GRADS) study, we examined the prevalence of autoantibodies in sarcoidosis patients with pulmonary-only and extra-pulmonary organ involvement compared to normal controls. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODSWe analyzed serum samples from sarcoidosis patients who participated in the GRADS study utilizing an autoantigen microarray platform for both IgM and IgG antibodies. The cohort included sarcoidosis patients with pulmonary-only disease (POS, n = 106), sarcoidosis patients with extra-pulmonary disease (EPS, n = 120) and a normal control cohort (NC, n = 101). Organ involvement was assessed following a standardized format across all GRADS participating centers. RESULTSSarcoidosis patients overall had increased levels of IgM and IgG autoantibodies compared to normal controls. In addition, several autoantibodies were elevated in the POS and EPS cohorts compared to the NC cohort. Differences in autoantibody levels were also noted between the POS and the EPS cohorts. When comparing organ involvement with sarcoidosis, bone, spleen and ear, nose and throat involvement had higher IgM expression than other organs. CONCLUSIONSarcoidosis patients have elevated IgM and IgG autoantibody levels compared to normal controls. In addition, individuals with pulmonary as well as additional organ involvement had higher IgM expression. Further research is needed focusing on specific organ-autoantibody pairs and role of autoantibodies in disease pathogenesis.

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