Circular RNA (circRNA) is a novel class of single-stranded RNAs with a closed loop structure. The majority of circRNAs are formed by a back-splicing process in pre-mRNA splicing. Their expression is dynamically regulated and shows spatiotemporal patterns among cell types, tissues and developmental stages. CircRNAs have important biological functions in many physiological processes, and their aberrant expression is implicated in many human diseases. Due to their high stability, circRNAs are becoming promising biomarkers in many human diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases and human cancers. In this review, we focus on the translational potential of using human blood circRNAs as liquid biopsy biomarkers for human diseases. We highlight their abundant expression, essential biological functions and significant correlations to human diseases in various components of peripheral blood, including whole blood, blood cells and extracellular vesicles. In addition, we summarize the current knowledge of blood circRNA biomarkers for disease diagnosis or prognosis.
Autoimmune Diseases/blood* ; Biomarkers, Tumor/blood* ; Cardiovascular Diseases/blood* ; Humans ; Liquid Biopsy ; Neoplasms/blood* ; RNA, Circular/blood* ; RNA, Neoplasm/blood*

IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is a novel and rare autoimmune disease entity. Elevated serum IgG4 level is strongly suggestive of IgG4-RD. But it is still unknown whether serum IgG4 elevation commonly occurs in other autoimmune diseases. In this study, the serum IgG4 levels were detected by an established enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in a variety of autoimmune diseases including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Sjogren's syndrome (SS), polymyositis or dermatomyositis (PM/DM) and IgG4-RD. To evaluate the reliability of this ELISA system, some of our samples were sent to a lab in Kanazawa Medical University, Japan, and detected by using the nephelometric assay. The results showed that our findings were consistent with theirs. Moreover, it was found that the serum IgG4 levels were 0.23±0.16 g/L in 53 healthy controls, 0.16±0.15 g/L in 103 SLE patients, 0.22±0.18 g/L in 41 SS patients and 0.40±0.32 g/L in 21 PM/DM patients. No significant difference in the serum IgG4 level was observed among these groups (P>0.05). The serum IgG4 levels of two cases of IgG4-RD were 1.63 and 4.65 g/L respectively, and both decreased markedly after treatment with glucocorticoids. These data indicated that this established ELISA system can be used for detecting serum IgG4 levels. Elevated serum IgG4 levels help diagnose IgG4-RD and evaluate the curative effect of this condition rather than other autoimmune diseases.
Autoimmune Diseases ; blood ; diagnosis ; immunology ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; methods ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; blood

We selected 12 antigens corresponding to commonly used autoantibodies in clinical practice to prepare antigen microarray. We chose NBT/BCIP color reaction as the end detection strategy to develop a new autoantibody protein chip detection system. Using this system, we optimized the best spotting solution, spotting concentration of the 12 antigens and the dilution of serum. We prepared a protein chip that could detect 12 autoantibodies simultaneously using the optimized antigen concentration. We established a new method to determine the cutoff of each autoantibodies by evaluation of 678 positive and 120 negative serum of clinical sample. We also evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of our new detection system. The optimal spotting solution was 0.1% TBST, the dilution of serum was 1:4 and the best spotting concentration of the 12 antigens were ANA 520 microg/mL, Ro-60/SSa 465 microg/mL, La/SSb 530 microg/mL, Jo-1 530 microg/mL, Scl-70 525 microg/mL, Sm 520 microg/mL, Ro-52/SSa 615 microg/mL, RF 340 microg/mL, CCP 465 microg/mL, ulRNP 410 microg/mL, CENP-B 490 microg/mL and dsDNA 580 microg/mL respectively. It had higher coincidence rate compared to current clinical used methods. We have developed a 12 antigens protein chip for the detection of autoantibodies based on the NBT/BCIP color reaction system. This system was fast, convenient, efficient, and cost-effective.
Autoantibodies ; blood ; immunology ; Autoimmune Diseases ; blood ; immunology ; Humans ; Protein Array Analysis ; instrumentation ; methods ; Sensitivity and Specificity

Aged, 80 and over ; Autoimmune Diseases ; blood ; diagnosis ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; blood ; Lymphatic Diseases ; blood ; diagnosis ; Male ; Mikulicz' Disease ; blood ; diagnosis ; Pancreatitis ; blood ; diagnosis

Generation of various autoantibodies and associated autoimmune diseases has been reported in allogeneic and autologous stem cell transplant recipients. We report a case of scleroderma following autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.
Autoantibodies ; Autoimmune Diseases ; Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation* ; Stem Cells ; Transplantation

Autoantibodies ; blood ; Autoimmune Diseases ; complications ; Hepatitis C, Chronic ; complications ; immunology ; Humans

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune hemorrhagic disease. It is considered that production of platelet auto-antibodies was one of the pathogenesis of ITP, first-line therapy including corticosteroid and immunoglobulin could reduce destruction of platelets by inhibiting production of auto-antibodies and blocking Fc-receptor of reticuloendothelial system, but some of the patients were refractory to first-line therapy and have persistent duration of the disease, having worse prognosis and developing into chronic/refractory ITP(C/RITP) . Platelet membrane glycoprotein like GPIIb/IIIa and GPIbα are the most common antigen targets, but first-line therapy was less effective to patients whose anti-GPIbα antibodies are positive. Further studies revealed that the way causing platelet destruction by anti-GPIIb/IIIa antibodies and anti-GPIbα antibodies are different: the former is mainly dependent to Fc-pathway, and the latter mainly cleared platelet by Fc-independent way. Results above indicated that detection of type of platelet auto-antibodies maybe potential to treatment and prognosis of ITP. This article summarizes relationship between platelet specific antibodies and the onset, clinical manifestation, treatment and prognosis of ITP.
Antibodies ; immunology ; Autoimmune Diseases ; Blood Platelets ; immunology ; Humans ; Platelet Membrane Glycoproteins ; Prognosis ; Thrombocytopenia ; immunology ; therapy

Vasculitis is a heterogeneous group of diseases that destroy blood vessel walls by inflammation. Approximately half of vasculitis cases are idiopathic, but sometimes associated with genetic factors, medicines, chronic infection, autoimmune diseases, and malignancies. Although the mechanism remains unclear, vasculitis secondary to malignancy, also known as paraneoplastic vasculitis, has been reported. It is generally associated with hematologic malignancies rather than solid malignancies and commonly presents as leukocytoclastic vasculitis or polyarteritis nodosa. We experienced a case of leukocytoclastic vasculitis in a patient with hepatocellular carcinoma and membranous obstruction of the inferior vena cava. Here, we report this case with a brief review of literature.
Autoimmune Diseases ; Blood Vessels ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Hematologic Neoplasms ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Polyarteritis Nodosa ; Vasculitis* ; Vena Cava, Inferior*

No abstract available.
Autoimmune Diseases/*diagnosis/therapy ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G/blood ; Pancreatitis, Chronic/*diagnosis/pathology/therapy

No abstract available.
Autoimmune Diseases/*diagnosis/therapy ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G/blood ; Pancreatitis, Chronic/*diagnosis/pathology/therapy