Identification and validation of anti-protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) antibody as a novel biomarker for systemic sclerosis (SSc).

Objectives: In the complex panorama of autoimmune diseases, the characterisation of pivotal contributing autoantibodies that are involved in disease progression remains challenging. This study aimed to employ a global antibody profiling strategy to identify novel antibodies and investigate their association with systemic sclerosis (SSc).

Methods: We implemented this strategy by conducting immunoprecipitation (IP) following on-bead digestion with the sera of patients with SSc or healthy donors, using antigen pools derived from cell lysates. The enriched antigen-antibody complex was proceeded with mass spectrometry (MS)-based quantitative proteomics and over-represented by bioinformatics analysis. The candidate antibodies were then orthogonally validated in two independent groups of patients with SSc. Mice were immunised with the target antigen, which was subsequently evaluated by histological examination and RNA sequencing.

Results: The IP-MS analysis, followed by validation in patients with SSc, revealed a significant elevation in anti-PRMT5 antibodies among patients with SSc. These antibodies exhibited robust diagnostic accuracy in distinguishing SSc from healthy controls and other autoimmune conditions, including systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjögren's syndrome, with an area under the curve ranging from 0.900 to 0.988. The elevation of anti-PRMT5 antibodies was verified in a subsequent independent group with SSc using an additional method, microarray. Notably, 31.11% of patients with SSc exhibited seropositivity for anti-PRMT5 antibodies. Furthermore, the titres of anti-PRMT5 antibodies demonstrated a correlation with the progression or regression trajectory in SSc. PRMT5 immunisation displayed significant inflammation and fibrosis in both the skin and lungs of mice. This was concomitant with the upregulation of multiple proinflammatory and profibrotic pathways, thereby underscoring a potentially pivotal role of anti-PRMT5 antibodies in SSc.

Conclusions: This study has identified anti-PRMT5 antibodies as a novel biomarker for SSc.