Autoantibodies against mono- and tri-methylated lysine display similar but also distinctive characteristics.

ABSTRACT: Autoantibodies can be either harmful or beneficial to the body. The beneficial autoantibodies play important roles in immunosurveillance, clearance of body waste and maintenance of immune homeostasis. Despite their importance, however, people's knowledge on the protective autoantibodies is still very limited. In the current study, we examined two autoantibodies that recognized epitopes with only one amino acid. One was against mono-methylated lysine (Kme) and the other was against tri-methylated lysine (Kme3). We found that the antibodies were highly specific and not polyreactive. They did not cross-react each other. Although anti-Kme antibodies were IgM only, a large proportion of the anti-Kme3 antibodies were switched to the IgG isotype. Mass spectrometric analysis showed that both of th

SUBMITTER: Wang Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5319698 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature