Clinical Physiology Institute-CNR, 56124 Pisa, Italy.
Rheumatology Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy.
Biomolecules. 2022 May 24;12(6):738. doi: 10.3390/biom12060738.
Primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) is a complex autoimmune disorder that particularly affects the salivary and lachrymal glands, generally causing a typical dryness of the eyes and of the mouth. The disease encompasses diverse clinical representations and is characterized by B-cell polyclonal activation and autoantibodies production, including anti-Ro/SSA. Recently, it has been suggested that autoantibody profiling may enable researchers to identify susceptible asymptomatic individuals in a pre-disease state. In this pilot study, we used mass spectrometry to analyze and compare the salivary proteomics of patients with established pSS and patients with pre-clinical SS, identifying a common protein signature in their salivary fluid. We found that several inflammatory, immunity-related, and typical acinar proteins (such as MUC5B, PIP, CST4, and lipocalin 1) were differently expressed in pSS and in pre-clinical SSA+ carriers, compared to healthy controls. This suggests that saliva may closely reflect exocrine gland inflammation from the early phases of the disease. This study confirms the value of salivary proteomics for the identification of reliable biomarkers for SS that could be identified, even in a preclinical phase of the disease.
原发性干燥综合征（pSS）是一种复杂的自身免疫性疾病，主要影响唾液腺和泪腺，通常导致典型的眼睛和口腔干燥。该疾病具有多种临床表现，其特征是 B 细胞多克隆激活和自身抗体产生，包括抗 Ro/SSA。最近，有人提出，自身抗体分析可能使研究人员能够在疾病前状态下识别易感的无症状个体。在这项初步研究中，我们使用质谱分析法分析和比较了已确诊的 pSS 患者和临床前 SS 患者的唾液蛋白质组学，在他们的唾液中鉴定出了一个共同的蛋白质特征。我们发现，与健康对照组相比，pSS 和临床前 SSA+携带者的唾液中几种炎症、免疫相关和典型的腺泡蛋白（如 MUC5B、PIP、CST4 和脂钙蛋白 1）表达不同。这表明唾液可能从疾病的早期阶段就密切反映外分泌腺炎症。这项研究证实了唾液蛋白质组学在识别 SS 可靠生物标志物方面的价值，即使在疾病的临床前阶段也能识别出这些生物标志物。
