Presentations

Abstract

Introduction:

• Sarcoidosis is a multisystemic disease with variable clinical presentations, the hallmark of which is the presence of granulomas. Patients diagnosed with sarcoidosis are also more likely to be diagnosed with other autoimmune conditions.
• Sarcoidosis is 2 times more likely to affect women and is 2-4 times more prevalent in African American populations than non-Hispanic White populations.
• The etiology of sarcoidosis is unknown, making diagnosis and management difficult.
• Anti-cytokine autoantibodies have been identified in patients with several autoimmune and immunodysregulatory conditions.
• This project seeks to investigate whether anti-cytokine autoantibodies may be present in patients with sarcoidosis.

Methods:

• 18 patients were screened for cytokine autoantibodies utilizing our particle based assay
• 44% (8/18) of patients enrolled were African American and 39% (7/18) were white, while 17% (3/18) did not have a documented race in the medical record
• 61% (11/18) of patients were female, 39% (7/18) of patients were male
• The age range of this cohort is from 37-73 with a median age of 58 In order to carry out the assay, magnetic microspheres were conjugated to cytokines of interest and incubated with patient plasma samples. A secondary detection antibody was used to identify samples with autoantibodies based on fluorescence intensity (FI). Patient samples were compared to healthy controls and positive controls. Each experiment was performed in duplicate.

Results:

• 22% of patients (4/18) were positive for cytokine autoantibodies.
• 2/18 patients were determined to have anti-cytokine autoantibodies to TNF-⍺. Conclusion: 18 patients having a previous clinical diagnosis of sarcoidosis were screened for cytokine autoantibodies utilizing our particle-based assay. 22% of patients were shown to be positive for cytokine autoantibodies. Future plans are to perform functional testing on positive patient results, expand sample size, and establish screening tests for other auto-antibody targets.