Autoantibody signatures in children with celiac disease, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and polyautoimmunity – Research

Objective:

To determine if multiplex autoantibody arrays can identify novel biomarker signatures in children with one or multiple autoimmune diseases (polyautoimmunity).

Methods:

Plasma collected from children (18 years or younger) in the Boston Children’s Hospital Precision Link Biobank for Health Discovery between January 2007 and June 2021 was analyzed using a microarray with 120 autoantigens associated with various autoimmune diseases to assess for both immunoglobulin G (IgG) and A (IgA) autoantibodies. To determine if disease-specific, we binary classified those with polyautoimmunity and the most common autoimmune diseases in our cohort (autoimmune thyroid disease, type 1 diabetes, or celiac disease [CeD]). For each comparison within and between groups, the autoantibody intensity was releveled to the control and a linear model was fit.

Results:

Plasma was analyzed from 114 children with either CeD (n = 31), juvenile idiopathic arthritis (n = 20), polyautoimmunity (n = 31), or no autoimmune disease (n = 32). Overall, children with polyautoimmunity had higher levels of specific autoantibodies relative to the other groups. Children with CeD and polyautoimmunity expressed higher levels of H/K ATPase IgA and IgG and MDA5 IgG compared to those with CeD alone.

Conclusions:

Use of multiplex antigen arrays in patients with and without polyautoimmunity is a valuable tool to identify known and potentially novel disease-antigens. Further study is needed to determine the role of H/K ATPase autoantibodies in monitoring of CeD patients.