Citrullination: the loss of tolerance and development of autoimmunity in rheumatoid arthritis

oleh: G. Ferraccioli, B. Tolusso, I. Cuoghi, A.L. Fedele, S. Alivernini

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: PAGEPress Publications 2011-09-01

Deskripsi

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by synovial inflammation and pannus formation, which can lead to severe destruction of cartilage and bone. Several self proteins have been suggested to be disease-driving autoantigens. Moreover the presence of autoantibodies to citrullinated proteins in sera of patients with RA enhances the strength of this hypothesis. Proteins are encoded by a limited number of genes in our genome. Post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation, glycosylation and citrullination can increase the morphological and the functional diversity of the proteome.