Non-enzymatic glucosylation induced neo-epitopes on human serum albumin: A concentration based study

Hyperglycaemia induced non enzymatic glycation is accelerated in diabetic patients and aggressively involved in diabetes progression. Human serum albumin (HSA) is the most abundant protein in blood circulation. In hyperglycaemia, it undergoes fast glycation and results in the impairment of structure. Our previous study has demonstrated structural alterations in Amadori-albumin modified with different glucose concentrations from physiological to pathophysiological range. Here, we focused on immunological characterization of Amadori-albumin. Immunogenicity of Amadori-albumin was analysed by direct binding and competitive ELISA. Amadori-albumin was found to be highly immunogenic (expect albumin modified with 5mM) and induced high titre antibodies depending upon the extent of modification. Very high titre antibodies were obtained with albumin modified with 75mM glucose as compared to native albumin. Anti-Amadori-albumin-IgG from rabbit sera exhibited increased recognition of Amadori-albumin than native albumin in competitive immunoassay. Alteration induced in albumin after glucosylation has made it highly immunogenic. Induced antibodies were quite specific for respective immunogens but showed cross-reaction with other Amadori/native proteins. It suggests that glucosylation has generated highly immunogenic epitopes on albumin. Formation of high molecular weight immune complex with retarded mobility further supports specificity of anti-Amadori-albumin-IgG towards Amadori-albumin. It may be concluded that due to early glycation, an array of modification occurred in HSA structure. Such gross structural changes might favour polymerization of most of the native epitopes into potent immunogenic neo-epitopes, but some original epitopes were still active and has contributed in the immunogenicity. It could be concluded that induction of anti-Amadori-albumin antibodies may be due to protection of glucose modified albumin from protiolytic breakdown. We assumed that this type of protein modifications might occur in diabetic patients in hyperglycaemic conditions that may be recognised as foreign molecules and can induce autoantibodies. Increased level of anti-Amadori-albumin autoantibodies may be used as a biomarker in disease diagnosis and its progression.