[Autoantibodies and analysis of target antigens]

Autoantibodies in sera from patients with connective tissue diseases mainly target ribonucleoproteins (RNA-protein complexes) that are involved in important cellular functions such as gene transcription, RNA processing and protein translation. These autoantibodies are closely associated with specific diseases and clinical features, and are useful markers for diagnosis, classification of disease subsets, speculation of prognosis and disease activity. These target ribonucleoprotein antigens can be detected and characterized by sensitive RNA-immunoprecipitation technique.