ORGENTEC Autoimmunity Blog

Covering Autoimmune Diseases

Category: Research Update

What’s new in field of autoimmune diagnostics and autoimmune disorders?

Found last Week on the Internet

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Found last Week on the Internet, part 1: Up-to-date Articles on Autoimmunity and Autoimmune Diseases

 

Duroux-Richard I, Jorgensen C, Apparailly F. miRNAs and rheumatoid arthritis – promising novel biomarkers. Swiss Med Wkly. 2011 Mar 18;141:w13175 – doi: 10.4414/smw.2011.13175 – Free full text available! – Today, the most challenging issue in the field of rheumatoid arthritis is the identification of biomarkers for early disease diagnosis and for prediction drug response. micro(mi)-RNAs certainly represent an realistic option for optimal diagnosis an disease treatment.

 

Roux CH, Breuil V, Valerio L, Amoretti N, Brocq O, Albert C, Grisot C, Allam Y, Chevalier P, Pradier C, Euller-Ziegler L. Etanercept Compared to Intraarticular Corticosteroid Injection in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Double-blind, Randomized Pilot Study.  J Rheumatol. 2011 Mar 16. [Epub ahead of print]. – Patients with rheumatoid arthritis who had persistent (more…)

Diagnostic Value of Antibodies against Mutated Citrullinated Vimentin in Rheumatoid Arthritis

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According to a recently published study anti-MCV could be a better test for diagnosing RA than anti-CCP2 

Rapid intensive treatment may prevent patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from developing severe health damages and improve their state of health and quality of life. Therefore, early reliable diagnosis is a prerequisite. At present, the most helpful biomarkers to achieve this goal are antibodies against citrullinated proteins (ACPA) that can be detected in the blood of RA patients. (more…)

Autoantibodies precede manifestation of Lupus by years

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Antibodies to various autoantigens may be present in sera of patients who will develop Lupus erythematosus up to seven years before onset of disease symptoms

 

Immunoflurescence image of anti-dsDNA-antibodies for the diagnosis of SLE

Autoantibodies against dsDNA are diagnostic markers for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Autoantibodies are specific and sensitive biomarkers for autoimmune diseases and indispensible diagnostic tools. They may also be involved in pathogenic processes underlying the disease and will potentially occur in sera of apparently healthy people long before onset of the first symptoms.

C. Eriksson, S. Raantapaa-Dalquist and their colleagues from Umeå University in Sweden have focused on this preclinical phase in the development of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). (more…)

Our Point-of-Care-Test rheumachec for Diagnosing Rheumatoid Arthritis

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Our Point-of-Care-Test rheumachec for Diagnosing Rheumatoid Arthritis – a Highly Accessed Research Article in Arthritis Research & Therapy!

Several days ago, a colleague pointed out to me a publication in the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy that came about largely through collaboration with scientists at ORGENTEC Diagnostika. Needless to say that this article was already familiar to me – already before its initial online publication in the summer of this year, I had read excerpts from it and extensively discussed the work and the results of this evaluation study with co-workers and clients. (more…)

Research Update: Common Adult Vaccinations do not Increase the Risk of developing Rheumatoid Arthritis

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The EIRA Study: Vaccinations and RA Risk – no Association found!

“Common adult immunizations are not associated with an increased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis” – that is the result of research published in the October issue of The Annals of the Rheumatic Disease, the EULAR journal. Last week that data were also presented at the American College of Rheumatology ACR Annual Scientific Meeting (took place from 6th to 11th November).

Common adult vaccinations don’t increase the risk of developing RA, recent results of the Swedish EIRA Study Group say.

Common adult vaccinations don’t increase the risk of developing RA, recent results of the Swedish EIRA Study Group say.

“Vaccinations are among the events which have long been postulated as inciting agents for rheumatoid arthritis, as well as for many other chronic inflammatory diseases of unknown origin,” lead investigator in the study, Camilla Bengtsson, PhD, stated in her lecture last Monday at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, USA.

No increased RA risk following immunizations

“In our case-control study including incident cases of newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis, no increased risk of RA following immunization was observed, at least not in the five years prior to disease onset”, the epidemiologist at the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, explained in more detail, noting that the study is still ongoing. From Dr. Bengtsson’s point of view these results are indicating that immunological provocation with commonly used vaccines in their present form do not carry a risk of rheumatoid arthritis in adults. (more…)

Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis: Newly Discovered Gene Indicates Risk!

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Recent Publications: Genetic Basis of Psoriasis

It is the nature of things: on days of action like World Psoriasis Day on October 29th of every year) reports about the topic in question and new articles and scientific studies start to pile up. 

The texture of a tree - as an allegory for the skin in case of psoriasis

For example, several research reports on the subject of psoriasis have appeared in the journal Nature Genetics in the last few weeks; as usual, they first appeared online. Whether the approach of World Psoriasis Day was the trigger for this advance publication remains an open question. The results of a Chinese study, a study from the USA and Canada, and a very comprehensive German study all presented in Nature Genetics, which I have linked to below, are generally interesting and newsworthy. (more…)

B-Cells in Autoimmunity

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A link between B cell receptor expression and autoantibody production in rheumatoid arthritis

By now, it is a well known fact, that B cells play an important role in the development of autoimmunity. On the one hand, they are the precursors of the antibody-secreting plasmablasts and memory cells; on the other hand they also act as antigen-presenting cells.

Various cells of the immune system express a plethora of receptors that bind to the
Fc-portion of immune complexes containing IgG (Fc-gamma-receptors, FcγR), but
B cells and plasma cells only express the low affinity FcγRIIb. This receptor has repressive functions and mediates the deletion of autoreactive B cells and the inhibition of IgG secretion, thereby helping to preserve B cell tolerance.

Human autoimmune diseases that are characterized by an abnormal production of autoreactive antibodies have been suspected to come along with impaired FcγRIIb function. Alterations of the expression of FcγRIIb on B cells have been shown for Lupus erythematosus and several other autoimmune diseases, but until now, data have been lacking for rheumatoid arthritis. (more…)

Biomarkers – The Key to Prevention and Early Detection of Disease

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Biomarkers are the key to prevention and early detection of disease …

… of this I am convinced. And I am firmly convinced that laboratory diagnostics and the use of biomarkers will have a critical effect on the medicine of tomorrow.

Why am I so sure of this? It has already been demonstrated that biomarkers can be used to optimize treatment for individual patients with diabetes. In the future, individualized medicine (also sometimes called “personalized medicine”) will not only significantly increase the efficiency of treatment; it will also greatly improve prevention and early detection. Today it is already possible to carry out a diagnosis in the symptom-free phase of a disease by using biomarkers. This is of great benefit to the patients who receive early and targeted treatment. (more…)

The 2010 ACR – EULAR Rheumatoid Arthritis Classification Criteria in brief

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In the September issues of their journals Arthritis and Rheumatism and Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) present a new set of criteria for the classification of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Why do wee need “new” criteria for the classification of RA?

The 1987 ACR criteria have been criticised for their lack of sensitivity, especially in early disease. They rather describe the symptoms of fully developed late-stage RA. During the past decade, RA treatment has undergone dramatic changes (more…)

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