Analysis of antibodies to RNA in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and other autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

The frequency and clinical associations of anti-RNA antibodies measured by ELISA were assessed in 138 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Of the sera from these patients 9.4% had anti-RNA antibodies but no distinguishing features, clinical, serological or immunogenetic, between those with or without these antibodies could be identified. However, investigations of patients with other autoimmune rheumatic diseases did not reveal any anti-RNA positivity, which indicates a marked disease specificity for anti-RNA antibodies in SLE. The initial anti-RNA antibody screen used a soluble yeast extract as test antigen. The positive sera were further tested against a range of RNAs from 10 different types of rat tissue. In essence few differences were observed, suggesting that the anti-RNA response is directed against common, highly conserved epitopes.