Author/Editor		Crowley, Jameson T.; Drouin, Elise E.; Pianta, Annalisa; Strle, Klemen; Wang, Qi; Costello, Catherine E.; Steere, Allen C.
Title		A highly expressed human protein, apolipoprotein B-100, serves as an autoantigen in a subgroup of patients with lyme disease
Type		članek
Vol. and No.		Letnik 212, št. 11
Publication year		2015
Volume		str. 1841-1850
ISSN		0022-1899 - The Journal of infectious diseases
Language		eng
Abstract		To discover novel autoantigens associated with Lyme arthritis (LA), we identified T-cell epitopes presented in vivo by human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR molecules in patients' inflamed synovial tissue or joint fluid and tested each epitope for autoreactivity. Using this approach, we identified the highly expressed human protein, apolipoprotein B-100 (apoB-100), as a target of T- and B-cell responses in a subgroup of LA patients. Additionally, the joint fluid of these patients had markedly elevated levels of apoB-100 protein, which may contribute to its autoantigenicity. In patients with antibiotic-refractory LA, the magnitude of apoB-100 antibody responses correlated with increased numbers of plasma cells in synovial tissue, greater numbers and activation of endothelial cells, and more synovial fibroblast proliferation. Thus, a subset of LA patients have high levels of apoB-100 in their joints and autoreactive T- and B-cell responses to the protein, which likely contributes to pathogenic autoimmunity in patients with antibiotic-refractory LA.
Keywords		Borrelia burgdorferi autoantibodies apolipoprotein B Borrelia burgdorferi lastna protitelesa apolipoprotein B