Identifying autoantigens as theranostic targets: antigen arrays and immunoproteomics approaches

The development of theranostics holds great potential for the advancement of personalized medical treatments for human diseases. The theranostic approach combines diagnostic testing with predicted treatment outcomes in order to specifically tailor medical treatments for individual patients. As such, theranostic tests have the potential to revolutionize the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of human diseases. Currently, the search is underway to identify novel targets for use in the development of theranostic approaches. The aims of this review are: to briefly describe the current capabilities of antigen-autoantibody microarrays, including our native antigen 'reverse-capture' autoantibody microarray platform to identify theranostic targets; to detail other immunoproteomics approaches for the identification of theranostic targets, including serological analysis of antigens by recombinant complementary (c)DNA expression cloning, serological proteome analysis, and autoantibody-mediated identification of antigens; and to provide examples of their use in theranostic discoveries.