Detection of Antibodies to dsDNA: An Overview of Laboratory Assays

Abstract

This brief review is focused on different methodologies available for detection of anti-dsDNA antibodies with respect to the best adequacy between biological results of laboratory and clinical significance. A large array of assays has been developed for the measurement of anti-dsDNA. New assays continually introduced have reflected not only technical innovations to avoid difficulties of some assays, but even more with hope to correlate better with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), particularly with its clinical course and exacerbations. Finally, with the development of micro arrays technology new insights into the pathophysiology of autoimmune disease processes should be revealed.

Toll-like receptor 9 in murine lupus: More friend than foe!

“…It has been suggested that low-affinity anti-DNA antibodies (as detected by ELISA) in autoimmune mice might be less pathogenic compared to specific Crithidia luciliae-positive high-affinity antibodies. However, to our knowledge this hypothesis has not been circumstantiated experimentally (Hamilton et al, 2006;Rouquette and Desgruelles, 2006).…”

“…This was called the ''two-receptor paradigm'' of TLR-mediated cellular activation (Lau et al, 2005). The idea became popular because it explained how usually inert DNA could provoke an immune response in SLE (Rouquette and Desgruelles, 2006), namely by activation of the BCR and by TLR9 engagement. However, autoimmune models that did not employ repertoire-restricted immunoglobulin-transgenic mice do not show a predicted inhibition of anti-DNA autoantibody production or SLE symptom amelioration through deletion of TLR9 in vivo (Lartigue et al, 2006;Wu and Peng, 2006;Yu et al, 2006).…”

Évaluation du kit Diasorin Liaison® dsDNA pour la détection des anticorps anti-DNA natif

“…Néanmoins, les techniques évoluent avec, en particulier, des modifications dans le DNA choisi comme antigène, l'optimisation des procédures de coating et la capacité de détecter essentiellement des anti-DNA d'affinité forte ou intermédiaire [10].…”

“…Plusieurs tests existent, basés sur des technologies différentes : immunofluorescence indirecte sur Crithidia luciliae (CLIF), radio-immunologie (test de Farr) et tests Elisa dont l'utilisation est en progression [9,10,12]. Si tous ces tests sont aptes à doser les anticorps anti-DNA natif, il existe des discordances entre eux dans les résultats liées en partie aux principes méthodologiques et à un moindre degré au recrutement des patients testés [11,21].…”

Comparison and evaluation of different methodologies and tests for detection of anti-dsDNA antibodies on 889 Slovenian patients’ and blood donors’ sera

“…Different combinations of these methods are used in diagnostic laboratories worldwide, without a consensus on exclusive methods (8,10). An important cause of discrepancies between results obtained with different methods lies in the avidity of antibodies.…”