Epstein-Barr virus and rheumatoid arthritis: are rheumatoid arthritis associated nuclear antigen and Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen different?

In order to investigate the relationship between antibodies to RANA and other Epstein-Barr virus induced antigens, we have tested 50 sera from subjects without rheumatoid arthritis and with various EBV serology patterns for aRANA, aEA, aVCA, aEBNA. Patients were either suffering from Burkitt's lymphoma, infectious mononucleosis, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Hodgkin's disease or immunodeficiencies, or were healthy controls. RANA was detected by indirect immunofluorescence on G1 synchronized Raji cells. The correlation was very strong between aEBNA and aRANA (r = 0.86) without any correlation between aRANA and aVCA. These data not only strongly support the opinion that aRANA is frequently found in non-rheumatoid diseases but cast doubt on the distinction between RANA and EBNA.