DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE

摘要

The detection of parietal cell autoimmune antibodies comprising an ATP4A D3.2 subdomain binding site can diagnose autoimmune body gastritis and/or pernicious anemia with extraordinary sensitivity and specificity that is far superior to existing commercial assays. Further, the assay has diagnostic applications for use in diagnosing type 1 diabetes, thyroiditis and Addison's disease. As pernicious anemia is typically a disease of the elderly, detection of parietal cell antibodies may precede clinical disease by many years if not decades, thereby allowing the initiation of therapeutic interventions such as vitamin B12 administration to prevent the development of pernicious anemia or immunologic interventions to prevent type 1 diabetes and its complications.