BRIEF COMMUNICATION Novel autoantibodies in Sjogren's syndrome Long Shen a , Lakshmanan Suresh b , Matthew Lindemann b , Jingxiu Xuan c , Przemek Kowal b , Kishore Malyavantham b , Julian L. Ambrus Jr. a , ⁎ a Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA b IMMCO Diagnostics Inc., Buffalo, NY 14228, USA c Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA Received 21 April 2012; accepted with revision 30 September 2012 Available online 12 October 2012 KEYWORDS Sjogren's syndrome; Autoantibodies Abstract Sjogren's syndrome (SS) is defined by autoantibodies to Ro and La. The current studies identified additional autoantibodies in SS to salivary gland protein 1 (SP-1), carbonic anhydrase 6 (CA6) and parotid secretory protein (PSP). These autoantibodies were present in two animal models for SS and occurred earlier in the course of the disease than antibodies to Ro or La. Patients with SS also produced antibodies to SP-1, CA6 and PSP. These antibodies were found in 45% of patients meeting the criteria for SS who lacked antibodies to Ro or La. Furthermore, in patients with idiopathic xerostomia and xerophthalmia for less than 2 years, 76% had antibodies to SP-1 and/or CA6 while only 31% had antibodies to Ro or La. Antibodies to SP-1, CA6 and PSP may be useful markers for identifying patients with SS at early stages of the disease or those that lack antibodies to either Ro or La. © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Sjogren's disease (SD) is a systemic autoimmune disease in which loss of salivary gland and lachrymal gland function is associated with hypergammaglobulinemia, autoantibody production, mild kidney and lung disease and eventually lymphoma [1–3]. Sjogren's syndrome (SS) involves dry eyes and dry mouth without systemic features that may be either primary or secondary to another autoimmune disease, such as SLE. Patients with SS and SD are generally picked up at a late stage in their disease, after the salivary glands and lachrymal glands are already destroyed, because they are asymptomatic until that time. At this point, only symptomatic treatment can be offered for abnormal lachrymal and salivary gland function [4–6]. The current diagnostic criteria for SS based on revised American–European consensus group include I. Ocular symp- toms, II. Oral symptoms, III. Ocular signs, IV. Focal sialoadenitis, V. Salivary gland involvement and VI. Anti Ro/La antibodies in the absence of head and neck radiation treatment, hepatitis C, AIDS, lymphoma, sarcoidosis, graft versus host disease or ⁎ Corresponding author at: Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, SUNY at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Room C281, Buffalo General Hospital, 100 High Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA. Fax: +1 716 859 1249. E-mail address: jambrus@buffalo.edu (J.L. Ambrus). 1521-6616/$ - see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clim.2012.09.013 available at www.sciencedirect.com Clinical Immunology www.elsevier.com/locate/yclim Clinical Immunology (2012) 145, 251–255