New Tests for Early Sjogren's Diagnosis

New Tests For Early Sjogren's Diagnosis

The hallmarks of Sjogren's Syndrome are severe dry eyes and dry mouth. It is an autoimmune disease where eventually the salivary and tear secretion glands can be killed and beyond rescue.  Now there are new antibodies that may allow diagnoses to be made early so appropriate treatments can start and prevent these irreversible damages.

These new antibodies are:

1.  SS- to salivary gland protein

2 CA6 - to caronic anhydrase 6

3. PSP- to paratoid secretory protein

The new antibodies were seen in 45 % of patients who met most of the clinical criteria for Sjogren’s except for the antibodies currently required for diagnosis, called Ro and La.

At least one of the novel antibodies is present in 76 % of patients who have had symptoms for less than two years and who also lacked the two antibodies required for definitive diagnosis, which appear late in the disease.

“The vast majority of patients we tested who have early symptoms of severe dry mouth and dry eyes also have these antibodies.

Sjogren’s Syndrome affects more than 4 million Americans, 90 % of whom are women. Last year, tennis champion Venus Williams announced that she had the disease.

Symptoms are dry eyes and dry mouth so severe that they are painful.  The disease is also associated with kidney and lung disease, lymphoma, cancer of the lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell that is continually produced in Sjogren’s Syndrome.

Once the new antibodies were detected in mice, the scientists started testing human patients at Buffalo General Medical Center. The researchers found the same antibodies in humans even at early stages of the disease.

This is an abstract from the Clinical Immunology, Volume 145, Issue 3, December 2012, Pages 251–255