Low Level Antibodies Against Alpha-Tropomyosin Are Associated With Increased Risk of Coronary Heart Disease

Yin Zhang; Heru Zhao; Bin Liu; Li Li; Lulu Zhang; Mei Bao; Xinyu Ji; Xiaojuan He; Jianfeng Yi; Peng Chen; Cheng Lu; Aiping Lu

doi:10.3389/fphar.2020.00195

Low Level Antibodies Against Alpha-Tropomyosin Are Associated With Increased Risk of Coronary Heart Disease

Front Pharmacol. 2020 Feb 27:11:195. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2020.00195. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Yin Zhang^{1

2}, Heru Zhao^{1

2}, Bin Liu², Li Li², Lulu Zhang^{1

2}, Mei Bao^{1

2}, Xinyu Ji², Xiaojuan He², Jianfeng Yi¹, Peng Chen³, Cheng Lu², Aiping Lu⁴

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Research on Active Ingredients in Natural Medicine of Jiangxi Province, Yichun University, Yichun, China.
² Institute of Basic Research in Clinical Medicine, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
³ Beijing Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine Basic Research on Prevention and Treatment for Major Diseases, Experimental Research Center, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁴ School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China.

Abstract

Objective: Natural autoantibodies have been implicated to play a key role in the pathogenesis of coronary heart disease (CHD) because they augment autoimmune activation. The aim of this study was to identify novel specific autoantibodies of CHD, and analyze the relationship between their levels and CHD risk indicators.

Approach and results: First, clinical data and sera from CHD patients were collected. Then, one protein microarray containing 37 proteins that represent candidate autoantigens was developed. The arrays were used to profile autoantibodies in randomly selected sera from 35 samples (20 CHD patients, and 15 healthy controls). After that, microarray data were analyzed and autoantibodies for CHD were screened out. Then, ELISA detection was conducted to validate the differentiable autoantibodies using larger numbers of serum samples (131 CHD patients, and 131 healthy controls). Finally, the associations of antibodies with CHD risk indicator parameters were assessed. Inter-group comparison by microarray indicated that three CHD novel autoantibodies, including glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (G6PI), alpha-tropomyosin (TPM1), and heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein D-like (HnRNPDL), were significantly (P < 0.05) increased when compared with the healthy controls. Moreover, a significant increase of IgG autoantibodies for these three autoantigens was confirmed in CHD patients by ELISA (P < 0.0001). The correction analysis revealed a negative correlation of anti-TPM1 antibody levels and total cholesterol (P = 0.0034), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P = 0.0086), respectively.

Conclusion: G6PI, TPM1, and HnRNPDL were CHD natural autoantigens, and serum anti-TPM1 antibody could be used as a potential marker to predict the risk for CHD patients.

Keywords: autoantibodies; autoantigens; coronary heart disease; protein microarrays; risk factors.