Discrepancy of glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 autoantibody results between RSR radioimmunoassay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in patients with type 1 diabetes is related to autoantibody affinity.

AIM/INTRODUCTION: Autoantibodies to the 65 kDa isoform of glutamic acid decarboxylase (GADA) are a valuable diagnostic and predictive marker for type 1 diabetes. Recently, it has been reported that a significant proportion of sera in the commercial RSR radioimmunoassay (RIA) that have tested positive for GADA have then turned negative in RSR enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests in patients with type 1 diabetes. The present study aimed to investigate whether the GADA result discrepancies between RSR-RIA and RSR-ELISA are related to autoantibody affinity.

METHODS

GADA affinity was measured by a competitive binding experiment using unlabeled recombinant human GAD65 in 12 discordant samples (5 RIA[+]/ELISA[-] and 7 RIA[-]/ELISA[+] sera). Furthermore, the effect of the initial incubation time on the GADA positivity was also examined using the ELISA test.

RESULTS

GADA affinities were >10  L/mol in two of five RIA(+)/ELISA(-) and all of seven RIA(-)/ELISA(+) sera. After an initial incubation time longer than the recommended 1 h, the GADA titer in three of five RIA(+)/ELISA(-) sera and all RIA(-)/ELISA(+) sera increased 1.6- to 100-fold. However, the titer in 12 GADA-negative sera from healthy controls remained unchanged after the longer incubation. The increment ratio of GADA titer was positively correlated with GADA affinity (r = 0.991, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The RSR-RIA test identifies both high- and low-affinity GADA, whereas the RSR-ELISA test identifies only high-affinity GADA. A longer initial incubation time in the RSR-ELISA test increases the sensitivity of GADA with the same specificity in patients with type 1 diabetes.