Anti-Nucleosome Antibodies (AnuA)

Detection of anti-nucleosome antibodies (anti-nuc) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has been well established and it is claimed that their presence is associated with disease activity. Recently, it was proposed that the nucleosome is the principal antigen in the pathophysiology of SLE, and that anti-nucleosome antibodies (anti-NCS) are associated with organic damage. However, the sensitivity and specificity of anti-NCS antibodies for the diagnosis of SLE in patients with long disease duration have not been shown to be better than those of anti-dsDNA antibodies. In the murine models of lupus, anti-NCS antibodies arise before the development of other anti-chromatin antibodies and they have the highest prevalence from the early stages of life ; therefore, we hypothesized that anti-NCS antibodies could be useful in the diagnosis and assessment of disease activity in SLE patients of recent onset.