Correlation between the presence of antibodies to the Epstein-barr virus nuclear antigen type 2 and antibodies to the rheumatoid arthritis nuclear antigen in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

✍ Scribed by Thomas B. Sculley; John H. Pope; Ron A. Hazelton

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1986
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 643 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-3591
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1780290804

✦ Synopsis

The incidence of antibodies to Epstein-Barr nucleair antigen type 2 (EBNA-2) was determined in sera from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and control subjects, by protein immunoblotting. Sixty-eight percent of the RA patients and 48% of the controls possessed anti-EBNA-2 antibodies. The titer of antirheumatoid arthritis nuclear antigen (RANA) in RA patient sera showed a stronger correlation with serum reactions to EBNA-2 than with reactions to EBNA-1. Our results indicate that the presence of EBNA-2 may make a major contribution to the RANA reaction.

In 1975, Alspaugh and Tan (1) reported the discovery of an antibody in patients with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA), that precipitated with extracts of an Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genomepositive human B lymphoblastoid cell line. It was shown by indirect immunofluorescence that the antigen .was present in the cell nucleus. The antigen was therefore designated the rheumatoid arthritis-associated nuclear antigen (RANA). Confirming the results of AKspaugh and Tan (I), Catalan0 et a1 (2) found that patients with RA had a significantly higher frequency