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. 2023 Dec 1;64(15):13.
doi: 10.1167/iovs.64.15.13.

Association of Circulating Antiretinal Antibodies With Clinical Outcomes in Retinitis Pigmentosa

Lorenzo Bianco  1   2 , Alessandro Arrigo  1   2 , Alessio Antropoli  1   2 , Sebastiano Del Fabbro  1   2 , Paola Panina-Bordignon  2   3 , Carolina Peri  3 , Elena Brambilla  2   3 , Adelaide Pina  1 , Giulia Basile  1 , Rashid Hassan Farah  1 , Andrea Saladino  1   2 , Emanuela Aragona  1   2 , Maria Lucia Cascavilla  1   2 , Francesco Bandello  1   2 , Maurizio Battaglia Parodi  1   2 , Jose S Pulido  4
Affiliations

Association of Circulating Antiretinal Antibodies With Clinical Outcomes in Retinitis Pigmentosa

Lorenzo Bianco et al. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. .

Abstract

Purpose: To determine if circulating antiretinal antibodies (ARAs) differ between patients affected by retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and control participants and to assess whether ARAs are associated with clinical outcomes in patients with RP.

Methods: Cross-sectional study involving a group of patients clinically diagnosed with RP and a control group of healthy participants. Serum autoantibodies against enolase, heat shock protein 70 (HSP70), and carbonic anhydrase II (CAII) were tested in all participants using Jess capillary Western blot. We compared ARA prevalence between the RP and control groups and investigated the association of serum ARA positivity with macular edema and vitreomacular disorders in patients affected by RP.

Results: Thirty-six patients affected by RP and a control group of 39 healthy individuals were included. Overall, at least one ARA positivity was detected in 89% and 80% of participants in the RP and control groups, respectively. We observed a similar prevalence of anti-CAII and anti-enolase ARA between patients and controls (P = 0.87 and P = 0.35, respectively). Sera from patients with RP tested positive for anti-HSP70 ARAs more frequently than those from controls (53% vs. 36%), albeit without reaching statistical significance (P = 0.29). Among the 72 eyes with RP, 25% presented with macular edema (most often bilateral) and 33% with epiretinal membrane and/or lamellar macular hole. None of the three ARAs was associated with an increased risk of any macular complications in eyes affected by RP (all P > 0.05).

Conclusions: The prevalence of circulating ARAs against enolase, HSP70, and CAII is similar between patients affected by RP and healthy individuals. Our results provide evidence against the association of ARAs with macular edema and vitreomacular interface disorders in RP.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: L. Bianco, None; A. Arrigo, None; A. Antropoli, None; S. Del Fabbro, None; P. Panina-Bordignon, None; C. Peri, None; E. Brambilla, None; A. Pina, None; G. Basile, None; R. Hassan Farah, None; A. Saladino, None; E. Aragona, None; M.L. Cascavilla, None; F. Bandello, None; M. Battaglia Parodi, None; J.S. Pulido, None

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Immunoblots of retinal antigens with sera from healthy controls and patients affected by RP. Each panel represents a different capillary Western blot run on four separate sets of controls and patients with RP. In the first five columns in each panel, the bands corresponding to the recombinant proteins are identified by the blot with the respective specific antibodies: size marker (lane 1), human recombinant enolase (lane 2), HSP70 (lane 3), human recombinant CAII (lane 4), and a mix of enolase, HSP70, and CAII (lane 5).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Bar graphs depicting the distributions of serum positivity to circulating ARAs against CAII, enolase, and HSP70 in controls and patients affected by RP.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Bar graphs depicting the distributions of serum positivity to circulating ARAs against CAII, enolase, and HSP70 in patients affected by RP, according to the presence of cystoid macular edema or vitreomacular interface disorders (epiretinal membrane and/or lamellar macular hole).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Sera reactivity on monkey retina sections. Sera from four healthy controls (A–D) and four patients affected by RP (E–H) were incubated with monkey retina sections. Negative control (control IgG) is shown in panel I. Signals were revealed with FITC human anti-IgAGM. Images were acquired by a Leica SP5 confocal microscope. Scale bars correspond to 25 µm. The table in panel J reports the circulating autoantibodies identified in the same samples shown in panels A to H. Legend: −, absent; +, present, area under the chemiluminescence response curve below the median; ++, present, area under the chemiluminescence response curve above the median.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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