Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a diverse, systemic autoimmune disease which causes significant morbidity and early mortality, especially in minority populations and in women of child-bearing age. By the time patients receive a SLE diagnosis, the majority have ongoing aggressive inflammatory processes and oftentimes damage that cannot be reversed. Understanding the basic mechanisms of disease initiation and perpetuation will provide necessary information for earlier diagnosis, prevention trial design and directed therapeutics for this complex disease. To accomplish these goals, we have assembled a number of preclinical autoimmune disease collections which will provide the critical infrastructure to accomplish our aims. These include serial pre-disease samples from individuals who develop SLE while in the US military, serial samples from blood relatives of lupus patients who do and do not transition to lupus, individuals with incomplete lupus who subsequently transition to SLE classification and autoantibody positive and autoantibody negative healthy controls. Preliminary data has identified initial humoral epitopes of several lupus autoantibody systems;these will be confirmed and explored as potential predictors of high-risk populations and potential toleragens. Autoantibody positive healthy individuals have unique serum cytokine and chemokine profiles, some of which are shared with SLE patients and others which are unique to healthy individuals with autoantibodies against RNA or DNA associated proteins. These subjects also have unique cellular responses to select cytokines and increased cellular activation profiles. Additionally, individuals who eventually transition to clinical SLE are found o have dysregulation of select cytokines and chemokines years before disease onset and hydroxychloroquine has been associated with a delayed onset of SLE classification and slowed autoantibody accrual. The following aims will build on these preliminary findings and will be used to address pivotal clinical questions of what predicts SLE development and identify mechanisms of preclinical autoimmunity that contribute to transition to clinical disease.
These aims are to: 1) identify and confirm early humoral epitope targets for select lupus-associated specificities across a spectrum of pre-clinical lupus collections, 2) evaluate the role of IL1 receptor antagonist:IL1beta ratios and BLyS levels, as well as other peripheral cytokine or chemokine measurements, in the transition from preclinical autoimmunity to SLE disease classification, and 3) assess immune cell activation and regulatory pathways that are altered prior to clinical disease onset. These preclinical resources and our cumulative and evolving experience in this area will allow us to provide unique and necessary insights to the Autoimmune Disease Prevention Study Group, as well as to further develop targets for preclinical intervention in autoimmune disease prevention.

Public Health Relevance

The proposed early autoimmunity studies are crucial to help understand the etiology and pathogenesis of systemic autoimmune diseases, like SLE, where ongoing inflammatory end-organ damage and confounding immunosuppressive medications can mask or otherwise impair understanding of these complex diseases. Uncovering early events as proposed will also provide information needed to identify high-risk individuals and provide directed immunotherapeutic targets.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Research Project--Cooperative Agreements (U01)
Project #
5U01AI101934-03
Application #
8678837
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZAI1)
Program Officer
Esch, Thomas R
Project Start
2012-07-01
Project End
2017-06-30
Budget Start
2014-07-01
Budget End
2015-06-30
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Oklahoma City
State
OK
Country
United States
Zip Code
73104
Patel, Zubin; Lu, Xiaoming; Miller, Daniel et al. (2018) A plausibly causal functional lupus-associated risk variant in the STAT1-STAT4 locus. Hum Mol Genet :
Kheir, Joseph M; Guthridge, Carla J; Johnston, Jonathon R et al. (2018) Unique clinical characteristics, autoantibodies and medication use in Native American patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Lupus Sci Med 5:e000247
Young, K A; Munroe, M E; Harley, J B et al. (2018) Less than 7 hours of sleep per night is associated with transitioning to systemic lupus erythematosus. Lupus 27:1524-1531
Jog, Neelakshi R; Chakravarty, Eliza F; Guthridge, Joel M et al. (2018) Epstein Barr Virus Interleukin 10 Suppresses Anti-inflammatory Phenotype in Human Monocytes. Front Immunol 9:2198
Hanscombe, Ken B; Morris, David L; Noble, Janelle A et al. (2018) Genetic fine mapping of systemic lupus erythematosus MHC associations in Europeans and African Americans. Hum Mol Genet 27:3813-3824
Bagavant, Harini; Dunkleberger, Micah L; Wolska, Nina et al. (2018) Antibodies to periodontogenic bacteria are associated with higher disease activity in lupus patients. Clin Exp Rheumatol :
Jog, Neelakshi R; James, Judith A (2017) Biomarkers in connective tissue diseases. J Allergy Clin Immunol 140:1473-1483
Langefeld, Carl D; Ainsworth, Hannah C; Cunninghame Graham, Deborah S et al. (2017) Transancestral mapping and genetic load in systemic lupus erythematosus. Nat Commun 8:16021
Aberle, Teresa; Bourn, Rebecka L; Chen, Hua et al. (2017) Use of SLICC criteria in a large, diverse lupus registry enables SLE classification of a subset of ACR-designated subjects with incomplete lupus. Lupus Sci Med 4:e000176
Munroe, Melissa E; Young, Kendra A; Kamen, Diane L et al. (2017) Discerning Risk of Disease Transition in Relatives of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients Utilizing Soluble Mediators and Clinical Features. Arthritis Rheumatol 69:630-642

Showing the most recent 10 out of 61 publications