Analysis of autoantibody profiles in osteoarthritis using comprehensive protein array concepts

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common rheumatic disease and one of the most disabling pathologies worldwide. To date, the diagnostic methods of OA are very limited, and there are no available medications capable of halting its characteristic cartilage degeneration. Therefore, there is a significant interest in new biomarkers useful for the early diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic monitoring. In the recent years, protein microarrays have emerged as a powerful proteomic tool to search for new biomarkers. In this study, we have used two concepts for generating protein arrays, antigen microarrays, and NAPPA (nucleic acid programmable protein arrays), to characterize differential autoantibody profiles in a set of 62 samples from OA, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and healthy controls. An untargeted screen was performed on 3840 protein fragments spotted on planar antigen arrays, and 373 antigens were selected for validation on bead-based arrays. In the NAPPA approach, a targeted screening was performed on 80 preselected proteins. The autoantibody targeting CHST14 was validated by ELISA in the same set of patients. Altogether, nine and seven disease related autoantibody target candidates were identified, and this work demonstrates a combination of these two array concepts for biomarker discovery and their usefulness for characterizing disease-specific autoantibody profiles.