Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0027121 (myositis)
 4,538 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The convergence of studies in the clinical and basic sciences has resulted in the definitive identification of many intracellular antigens which are the targets of autoantibodies in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, dermatomyositis/polymyositis, Sjogren's syndrome, mixed connective tissue disease, and drug-induced autoimmunity. Some of this new knowledge includes the identification of the Sm and RNP antigens as ribonucleoprotein particles involved in splicing of precursor messenger RNA, Scl-70 as DNA topoisomerase I, proliferating cell nuclear antigen as auxiliary protein of DNA polymerase delta, and certain antigens in myositis as aminoacyl transfer RNA synthetases. This information confirms, at a molecular level, the presence of specific profiles of autoimmune responses so that autoantibodies can be used in clinical medicine as diagnostically useful immune markers. In addition the data give compelling reasons to consider that certain autoimmune diseases are antigen-driven. Many auto-antibodies have the interesting feature of recognizing epitopes on the antigens which are active or functional sites of the molecule. It is suggested that the data provide clues to the nature of the intracellular particle initiating the immune response and may help to elucidate some of the early mechanisms of the autoimmune process.
 ...
PMID:Antinuclear antibodies (ANAs): diagnostically specific immune markers and clues toward the understanding of systemic autoimmunity. 328 Jan 90

In more than 95% of patients with systemic sclerosis and in about 60% of patients suffering from idiopathic inflammatory myopathies autoantibodies directed at different nuclear or cytoplasmic antigens can be detected with different methods. Scleroderma-associated autoantibodies can be visualized as antinuclear antibodies (ANA) by immunofluorescence assays using cultured monolayer cells. In case of a negative ANA result the diagnosis of systemic sclerosis is unlikely. In individual patients the different autoantibodies (against DNA topoisomerase I (Scl-70), centromeric antigens, fibrillarin, To (Th), RNA polymerases, NOR-90, U1-nRNP, PM-Scl, Ku) are mutually exclusive. They can be detected early in the course of diseases, most often are persistent, and are closely associated with immunogenetic markers. They are characteristic for distinct subsets of patients homogeneous in clinical manifestations as well as in disease outcome. Myositis-associated autoantibodies are directed to nuclear (about 60% of myositis patients; PM-Scl, Mi-2) or cytoplasmic antigens (about 35-40%; Jo-1 and other aminoacyl-tRNA-synthetases, signal recognition particle (SRP), KJ and others) and likewise are related to distinct clinical, prognostic, and immunogenetic traits leading to the description of characteristic antibody-based syndromes. Based on published results and on our own investigations, the diagnostic potential of scleroderma- and myositis-associated antibodies is evaluated and a new classification of systematic myositic and sclerodermatous disease is proposed.
 ...
PMID:[Diagnostic significance of scleroderma and myositis-associated autoantibodies]. 772 5