International Immunology Advance Access published online on February 1, 2008
International Immunology, doi:10.1093/intimm/dxn004
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Comprehensive analysis of antibody responses to streptococcal and tissue antigens in patients with acute rheumatic fever
1 Associated Regional and University Pathologists Institute for Clinical and Experimental Pathology, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
2 Department of Pathology, Pediatrics and Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, 30 North 1900 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
3 Laboratory of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunology, Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
4 Research Division, Hospital for Special Surgery, Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
5 Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, USA
6 Center for Molecular and Translational Human Infectious Diseases Research, Methodist Hospital Research Institute, Houston, TX, USA
Correspondence to: Correspondence to: H. R. Hill; E-mail: harry.hill{at}path.utah.edu
Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is an autoimmune disease occurring in individuals following untreated group A streptococcal infection believed to be triggered by antibodies to bacterial components that cross-react with human tissues. We developed a multiplexed immunoassay for the simultaneous quantitation of antibodies to nine streptococcal-related antigens including streptolysin O (SLO), DNase B, collagen I and IV, fibronectin, myosin, group A carbohydrate, M6 protein and streptococcal C5a peptidase. Utilizing this method, we examined serum from 49 ARF, 58 pharyngitis patients and age- and sex-matched controls in samples collected at initial disease onset, and at 4 weeks, 6 months and 1 year after diagnosis. Antibody responses were significantly higher for SLO, DNase B, M6 protein, group A carbohydrate and the cross-reactive antigens collagen I and myosin in ARF compared with pharyngitis patients (P
0.05). Moreover, we found significantly elevated antibody responses in the ARF patients with rheumatic heart disease to fibronectin and collagen I compared with ARF patients without heart disease. The major differences between the ARF patients with and without carditis appear to be in the immune response to the putative heart valve components, collagen I and fibronectin.
Keywords: acute rheumatic fever, antibody responses, cross-reactivity, group A streptococcus, molecular mimicry, multiplexed immunoassay, rheumatic heart disease
Transmitting editor: M. C. Nussenzweig
Received 22 February 2007, accepted 5 January 2008.