Presence of antibodies to replication protein A in some patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)

Presence of antibodies directed against replication protein A (RPA), a DNA binding protein complex composed of three subunits (RPA-70, RPA-32 and RPA-14) was investigated among patients with SLE and other autoimmune diseases using immunoblot analysis to RPA-70 and RPA-32 recombinant proteins. Anti-RPA antibodies were found in two out of 108 sera from SLE patients, one of them showing reactivity against RPA-32 and RPA-70 and the other reacting only against RPA-32. Sera from 108 patients with other autoimmune disorders as well as from 42 healthy control individuals were negative. Thus, the frequency of these antibodies in SLE is estimated to be 2–3%. The study demonstrates that RPA is one target more of the wide array of autoantigens that elicit an immune response in SLE. The presence of anti-RPA autoantibodies seems to be circumscribed to a small number of patients with SLE.