Characterization of the immunoreactivity of anti-interferon alpha antibodies in myasthenia gravis patients. Epitope mapping

Journal of Autoimmunity
Iraldo Bello-RiveroPedro López-Saura

Abstract

Cytokines, such as interferons (IFN), underlie many immunological functions and are increasingly implicated in disease-related symptoms and pathology. In order to study the potential roles of IFN alpha and its antagonists in autoimmune phenomena, the sera from 89 patients (aged 15-95 years, 65 females) diagnosed as having myasthenia gravis (MG) (2 months to 34 years duration) were tested for the presence of natural anti-IFN alpha-2b auto-antibodies. Sera were screened for anti-IFN alpha-2b by a sandwich-type enzyme immunoassay system. Ten (11.2%) and 6 (6.7%) sera were identified that contained positive-competing and non-competing anti-IFN alpha-2b auto-antibodies, respectively. The MG sera were further analyzed by immunobloting against reduced IFN alpha-2b and for neutralizing anti-IFN alpha activity in an antiviral assay cells system. From tested EIA positive-competing sera, 5 were shown to be positive by immunoblot and 6 sera were found to contain neutralizing anti-IFN alpha-2b. Four of the 6 neutralizing anti-IFN alpha-2b sera came from patients with thymoma-associated MG. The sera were studied for linear epitope recognition on the IFN alpha-2b molecule by a solid phase binding assay, in which overlapping peptides homologou...Continue Reading

References

Jun 1, 1991·The Journal of Clinical Investigation·H LinkT Olsson
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Feb 1, 1989·Journal of Interferon Research·E N FishN Stebbing
Dec 1, 1999·Developmental and Comparative Immunology·F SinigagliaL Rogge
Jul 28, 2001·Trends in Immunology·L Rönnblom, G V Alm
Nov 2, 2002·Scandinavian Journal of Immunology·M Shodell, F P Siegal

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Citations

Sep 11, 2007·Clinical Immunology : the Official Journal of the Clinical Immunology Society·Li ZhangMark S Anderson
Jun 10, 2008·British Journal of Haematology·Edurne San José-EnérizFelipe Prósper

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