A major, novel systemic lupus erythematosus autoantibody class recognizes the E, F, and G Sm snRNP proteins as an E‐F‐G complex but not in their denatured states

Abstract

We demonstrate the presence of a novel and abundant anti-Sm autoantibody class in SLE patient sera which exclusively or predominantly recognizes conformational Sm epitopes present on the E-F-G complex but not on the denatured proteins. This complex recognition is highly specific for sera of the anti-Sm serotype and may be relevant for clinical diagnosis as well as for understanding the etiology of anti-Sm autoantibody production.