Different rheumatoid factor binding patterns distinguish between Sjögren's disease with or without associated RA

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Sjögren's disease (SjD) are two rheumatic autoimmune diseases that commonly co-occur. Besides some overlap in clinical presentation, the two diseases share the frequent occurrence of rheumatoid factors (RF); autoantibodies targeting the constant region of IgG (IgG-Fc). We previously demonstrated that RFs of patients with RA or SjD have distinct reactivity profiles towards various epitopes on IgG-Fc, prompting the question of whether binding patterns in patients with RA-associated SjD (SjD-RA) would reflect either disease or a combination thereof.

We determined IgM- and IgA-RF levels against a selected set of RF targets that were developed to map preferential RF binding to specific epitopes. We assessed binding patterns among 14 patients with SjD-RA and compared these to patterns found among 28 patients with early RA and 152 patients with SjD.

Both IgM-RF and IgA-RF profiles of SjD-RA patients closely resemble those of RA patients and are distinctly different from those found among SjD patients. Furthermore, the presence and binding pattern of RF seems to be inherently linked to the presence of anti-SSA/Ro antibodies in patients with SjD.

Analysing RF binding patterns could help to distinguish SjD, SjD-RA, RA and contributes to a better understanding of the underlying immunological processes in a complex multidisorder setting.