Tu131 - Distinct Patterns of Anti-cytokine Antibody Profiles in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Abstract Text: Anti-cytokine antibodies (ACAs) are a group of autoantibodies that target interleukins, interferons and other cytokine subgroups. While typically associated with inborn errors of immunity and severe viral infections, this class of autoantibodies appear to also be enriched in patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Yet, which ACAs occur most frequently in SLE and how they relate to other autoantibodies seen in rheumatic diseases remains unknown. In our present work, we aim to characterize the prevalence of ACAs in patients with SLE compared to other autoimmune conditions and no autoimmune disease, and understand how ACAs correlate with other classic autoantibodies (AAbs) seen in autoimmunity. For our study, we analyzed the ACA and AAbprofile of 300 patients with SLE, 80 patients with Sjogren, 100 patients with Multiple Sclerosis and 400 individuals with no systemic autoimmunity. We used a custom-made bead-based immunoassay that can detect up to 85 different autoantibodies (40 ACAs and 45 AAbs) in the plasma of each individual in our cohort. Our data support previous observations of higher occurrence of antibodies against interferons in patients with SLE and highlight a relative abundance of additional ACA subgroups such as the pro-inflammatory interleukins IL-6 and IL-12. Moreover, we found unique correlations between certain SLE-associated autoantibodies and ACAs including correlations of anti-U1 snRNP antibodies with anti-IL-12 autoantibodies, and anti-Smith antibodies with anti-IL-22 autoantibodies. Our findings suggest that people with SLE have a distinct ACA profile compared to individuals with other or no autoimmune conditions and these might correlate with specific disease manifestations.