Recognition of citrullinated and carbamylated proteins by human antibodies: Specificity, cross-reactivity and the 'AMC-Senshu' method

摘要

Recently, a novel family of autoantibodies in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients was described: anti-carbamylated protein (Anti-CarP) antibodies, which target carbamylated (homocitrulline-containing) epitopes. Since citrulline and homocitrulline have a similar structure, we wished to determine to what extent human autoantibodies can differentiate between them. Unlike human antibodies, the anti-modified citrulline (AMC) antibody developed by Dr Senshu is able to recognise citrullinated epitopes irrespective of the neighbouring amino acids. Thus, we also aimed to verify whether the AMC assay could distinguish between these two amino acids.