Autoimmunity is a significant feature of idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension.
File(s)rccm.202108-1919oc.pdf (1.2 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
RATIONALE: Autoimmunity is thought to play a role in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH). It is not clear if this is causative or a bystander of disease and if it carries any prognostic or treatment significance. OBJECTIVE: To study autoimmunity in IPAH using a large cross-sectional cohort. METHODS: Assessment of the circulating immune cell phenotype was undertaken using flow cytometry and the profile of serum immunoglobulins was generated using a standardised multiplex array of 19 clinically validated autoantibodies in 473 cases and 946 controls. Additional GST-fusion array and ELISA data were used to identify a serum autoantibody to BMPR2. Clustering analyses and clinical correlations were employed to determine associations between immunogenicity and clinical outcomes. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Flow cytometric immune profiling demonstrates IPAH is associated with an altered humoral immune response in addition to raised IgG3. Multiplexed autoantibodies were significantly raised in IPAH, and clustering demonstrated three distinct clusters: 'high autoantibody', 'low autoantibody', and a small 'intermediate' cluster exhibiting high levels of RNP-complex. The high autoantibody cluster had worse haemodynamics but improved survival. A small subset of patients demonstrated immunoglobulin reactivity to BMPR2. CONCLUSIONS: This study establishes aberrant immune regulation and presence of autoantibodies as a key feature in the profile of a significant proportion of IPAH patients and is associated with clinical outcomes. This article is open access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Date Issued
2022-07-01
Date Acceptance
2022-03-16
Citation
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 2022, 206 (1), pp.81-93
ISSN
1073-449X
Publisher
American Thoracic Society
Start Page
81
End Page
93
Journal / Book Title
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
Volume
206
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
©2022 by the American Thoracic Society. This article is open access and distributed under the terms of theCreative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License 4.0.For commercial usage and reprints, please e-mail Diane Gern (dgern@thoracic.org).
License URL
Sponsor
British Heart Foundation
The Academy of Medical Sciences
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35316153
Grant Number
FS/15/59/31839
WMET_P76013
Subjects
Autoimmune
BMPR2
IPAH
autoantibodies
pulmonary arterial hypertension
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Date Publish Online
2022-07-01