MIT RHEUMATISCHER ARTHRITIS ASSOZIIERTE SPLEISSVARIANTE VON CD44

摘要

A novel variant mRNA transcript of CD44 found in synovial cells of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients is described. This novel transcript contains the known CD44 constant and variant exons but also comprises three additional nucleotides (CAG) that are transcribed from the end of the intron bridging Exon v4 to Exon v5 and are inserted at the 5' end of Exon v5. This extra CAG sequence results in the insertion of a new codon for the amino acid alanine. The novel CD44 transcript found to date in eighteen RA patients and not found in healthy (non-RA) individuals, is useful in the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention and treatment of RA, of other diseases in which the variant CD44 transcript is involved and possibly in disorders and diseases which involve cells expressing other forms of the CD44 protein.