High Levels of Serum Ubiquitin and Proteasome in a Case of HLA-B27 Uveitis

Abstract

In this paper, the authors describe a case of high serum levels of ubiquitin and proteasome in a woman under an acute attack of autoimmune uveitis. The woman was 52 years old, diagnosed as positive for the Human leukocyte antigen-B27 gene, and came to our observation in January 2013 claiming a severe uveitis attack that involved the right eye. During the acute attack of uveitis, this woman had normal serum biochemical parameters but higher levels of serum ubiquitin and proteasome 20S subunit, with respect to a healthy volunteer matched for age and sex. These levels correlated well with the clinical score attributed to uveitis. After the patient was admitted to therapy, she received oral prednisone in a de-escalation protocol (doses from 50 to 5 mg/day) for four weeks. Following this therapy, she had an expected reduction of clinical signs and score for uveitis, but concomitantly she had a reduction of the serum levels of ubiquitin, poliubiquitinated proteins (MAb-FK1) and proteasome 20S activity. Therefore, a role for ubiquitin and proteasome in the development of human autoimmune uveitis has been hypothesized.

Ubiquitin System

“…The ubiquitin system is involved in the pathogenesis of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, such as arthritis, psoriasis, and allergy [ 21 ]. The case report by Rossi et al [ 22 ] described a correlation between autoimmune uveitis and high serum levels of ubiquitin and proteasome. Tsuchida et al [ 23 ] summarized the roles of the ubiquitin system in periodontal disease characterized by inflammation of the gum tissue.…”