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Utility of autoantibody against an UCH-L1 epitope as a serum diagnostic marker for neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus
Y. Guo1, X. Li2, R. Li3, Y. Li4, Z. Wang5, H. Liu6, S. Cao7, R. Li8, Y. Zhao9, Q. Wang10, X. Sun11
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing, China.
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing, China.
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing, China.
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing, China.
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing, China.
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, China.
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing, China.
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, and The Key Laboratory of Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases of Shenzhen, China. wqw_sw@163.com
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing, China. sunxiaolin_sxl@126.com
CER15203
2022 Vol.40, N°11
PI 2078, PF 2087
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PMID: 35084329 [PubMed]
Received: 30/09/2021
Accepted : 06/12/2021
In Press: 25/01/2022
Published: 04/11/2022
Abstract
OBJECTIVES:
Neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) is one of the most serious complications of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), lacking efficient diagnostic biomarkers. Previous studies have shown that anti-ubiquitin carboxyl hydrolase L1(UCH-L1) autoantibody is a promising cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker for NPSLE diagnosis. The purpose of this study is to explore the serum autoantibodies against different UCH-L1 epitopes and investigate the potential diagnostic value of serum autoantibodies against different UCH-L1 epitopes in NPSLE.
METHODS:
The epitopes of UCH-L1 protein were predicted in DNAStar software. The serum levels of different UCH-L1 epitope autoantibodies in 40 NPSLE patients, 32 SLE patients without neuropsychiatric symptoms and 21 healthy controls were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Data were analysed using Pearson correlation analysis, ROC curve analysis, nonparametric Mann-Whitney test, t-test and χ2 test.
RESULTS:
We screened three candidate epitopes of UCH-L1 protein. The autoantibody against amino acid 58 to 69 of UCH-L1 (UCH58-69) showed highest diagnostic power in distinguishing NPSLE patients from SLE patients without neuro-psychiatric symptoms (p=0.0038). The ROC analysis showed that the specificity and sensitivity of anti-UCH58-69 were 92.3% and 37.5%, respectively. In addition, increased serum anti-UCH58-69 levels were associated with increased SLEDAI, CSF microprotein, CSF leukocyte count, ESR, AnuA, anti-dsDNA, IgG and IgM but with decrease of C3 in SLE patients.
CONCLUSIONS:
The serum levels of anti-UCH58-69 significantly increased in NPSLE patients compared with SLE patients without neuropsychiatric symptoms and were correlated with disease severity. Anti-UCH58-69 autoantibody may become a novel serum biomarker for NPSLE non-invasive diagnosis, which might be applicable for NPSLE early screening and diagnosis.
