摘要
A physician in clinical practice does not usually order autoantibody testing to aid subsequent diagnosis or for monitoring disease activity in patients with psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis(PsA),although a variety of autoantibodies are present in these patients.Our understanding of autoantibodies in psoriasis and PsA is limited.Early investigations of autoantibodies in psoriasis were focused on the known autoantibodies in rheumatic diseases.For instance,anti-nuclear antibodies(ANAs)are often found in patients with psoriasis or PsA,but anti-double-stranded DNA or anti-extractable nuclear antigens are rarely identified.Therefore,ANAs have not been considered valuable in diagnosing PsA or predicting prognosis to manage PsA.Moreover,the roles of ANAs in the pathogenesis of PsA remain unknown.[1,2]Autoantibodies associated with rheumatoid arthritis(RA)have been investigated in PsA for their presence and association with the disease.For instance,antibodies against citrullinated proteins(ACPAs),which are highly specific to RA,are found in 5.0%to 17.5%of PsA patients.In several studies,a more erosive disease has been observed in PsA patients with ACPAs than in ACPA-negative PsA patients.[3,4]These findings imply that ACPAs in patients with PsA may be capable of inducing bone loss,which has been observed in RA patients with antibodies against citrullinated vimentin.
