ANTIBODIES AGAINST DEOXYRIBONUCLEOPROTEIN (ANTI-DNP) OR AGAINST NUCLEOSOMES: CLINICAL AND PATHOGENIC SIGNIFICANCE

摘要

This review presents more than 50 years' progress in opinions on the importance of immune reactions against nucleosomes in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The review begins with the revolutionary discovery of LE-phenomenon by Margraves in 1945, which affected the development of knowledge about SLE, and describes this prototypic organ nonspecific autoimmune disease and the recent findings mapping both B- and T-cell epitopes and therapies using these tolerogenic peptides. The authors made a significant and original methodological contribution by preparing the antigen [deoxyribonucleoprotein (DNP)] and its use in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent test introduced at the beginning of the 1980s. During 20 years of experience with this test, they collected results from extensive clinical material. Anti-DNP were shown to be more specific for SLE than antinucleosomes and they correlate well with the LE-cell test and with clinical activity of the disease. Numerous data support the etiopathogenetic hypothesis, which explains the production of antinucleosomal antibodies and their pathogenetic potential.