Anti-citrullinated α-enolase peptide as a highly sensitive autoantigen in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Fu-Chiang Yeh; Juin-Hong Cherng; Shu-Jen Chang; Wei-Ting Huang; Hsiang-Cheng Chen

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22745

Anti-citrullinated α-enolase peptide as a highly sensitive autoantigen in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Heliyon. 2023 Nov 22;9(12):e22745. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22745. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Authors

Fu-Chiang Yeh¹, Juin-Hong Cherng^{2

3

4}, Shu-Jen Chang³, Wei-Ting Huang⁴, Hsiang-Cheng Chen^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Rheumatology/Immunology/Allergy, Department of Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, 114, Taiwan.
² Graduate Institute of Life Sciences, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, 114, Taiwan.
³ Department and Graduate Institute of Biology and Anatomy, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, 114, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan, 320, Taiwan.
⁵ Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, 114, Taiwan.

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common autoimmune rheumatic disease in Taiwan. Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) assay is widely used for RA diagnosis; however, not all anti-CCPs are detectable in RA-joint lesions. Citrullinated α-enolase peptide (CEP), which has a unique immunodominant epitope, can be detected in synovial fluid. Here, we aimed to evaluate the potential of anti-CEP as a serologic marker for the early diagnosis of RA and a prognostic predictor of joint destruction. We also determined the association of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes with the serological status and clinical characteristics of RA. Clinical records of 30 patients with RA were collected, and their serum and DNA samples were evaluated using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and SNP cross-reaction analysis. A considerable amount of anti-CEP was detected in patients with RA, a trend similar to that of anti-CCP. Moreover, anti-CEP was considerably associated with the protein-arginine deiminase type-2 SNP rs1005753.

Keywords: Anti-citrullinated α-enolase peptide; Rheumatoid arthritis; Single nucleotide polymorphism.