They are antibodies produced by the immune system in response to aberrant changes in an individual’s own proteins. Many autoimmune diseases are caused by autoantibodies, but not all autoantibodies are pathogenic. They are produced in the early stages of many diseases and they persist throughout the disease course. Autoantibody signatures are meaningfully correlated with disease and offer the ability to differentiate between patients and groups.
Autoantibodies manifest in disease and have the ability to detect altered self-proteins with very high affinity. This makes them timely and biologically relevant biomarkers. The identification and combination of multiple biomarkers into a panel or signature can provide tremendous predictive power.
Autoantibodies bind target epitopes with great sensitivity and specificity and can be found at high concentrations in patient sera, making them easy to collect and measure. Small sample volume requirements make them a practical choice for research applications and future diagnostic development.
Traditional biomarkers, such as proteins or genomic markers, provide a snapshot in time that may not correlate directly with the disease. Because autoantibodies manifest and persist throughout the course of disease, they provide valuable insight into the patient’s real-time health status. Autoantibodies often appear years before physical symptoms, offering the potential to transform early diagnosis and treatment.
Sengenics is harnessing the power of autoantibody biomarkers to enable advances in diagnosis, prognosis, response prediction, and disease progression.
