Immunoadsorption of Desmoglein-3-Specific IgG Abolishes the Blister-Inducing Capacity of Pemphigus Vulgaris IgG in Neonatal Mice.

Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is a potentially life-threatening autoimmune blistering disease which is associated with autoantibodies directed against two desmosomal proteins, desmoglein (Dsg) 3 and 1. Treatment of PV is rather challenging and relies on the long-term use of systemic corticosteroids and additional immunosuppressants. More recently, autoantibody-depleting therapies such as rituximab, high-dose intravenous immunoglobulins, and immunoadsorption were shown to be valuable treatment options in PV. Specific removal of pathogenic autoantibodies would further increase efficacy and usability of immunoadsorption. Here, we tested the capacity of our recently developed prototypic Dsg1- and Dsg3-specific adsorbers to remove circulating pathogenic autoantibodies from three different PV patients. The pathogenic potential of the Dsg3/1-depleted IgG fractions and the anti-Dsg3-specific IgG was explored in two different in vitro assays based on cultured human keratinocytes, the desmosome degradation assay and the dispase-based dissociation assay. In addition, the neonatal mouse model of PV was used. In both in vitro assays, no difference between the pathogenic effect of total PV IgG and anti-Dsg3-specific IgG was seen, while Dsg3/1-depleted and control IgG were not pathogenic. For the samples of all 3 PV patients, depletion of anti-Dsg3/1 IgG resulted in a complete loss of pathogenicity when injected into neonatal mice. In contrast, injection of anti-Dsg3-specific IgG, eluted from the column, induced gross blistering in the mice. Our data clearly show that anti-Dsg3-specific IgG alone is pathogenic in vitro and in vivo, whereas Dsg3/1-depletion results in a complete loss of pathogenicity. Furthermore, our data suggest that Dsg-specific adsorption may be a suitable therapeutic modality to efficiently reduce pathogenic autoantibodies in patients with severe PV.

Proteomic Analysis of Pemphigus Autoantibodies Indicates a Larger, More Diverse, and More Dynamic Repertoire than Determined by B Cell Genetics.

In autoantibody-mediated diseases such as pemphigus, serum antibodies lead to disease. Genetic analysis of B cells has allowed characterization of antibody repertoires in such diseases but would be complemented by proteomic analysis of serum autoantibodies. Here, we show using proteomic analysis that the serum autoantibody repertoire in pemphigus is much more polyclonal than that found by genetic studies of B cells. In addition, many B cells encode pemphigus autoantibodies that are not secreted into the serum. Heavy chain variable gene usage of serum autoantibodies is not shared among patients, implying targeting of the coded proteins will not be a useful therapeutic strategy. Analysis of autoantibodies in individual patients over several years indicates that many antibody clones persist but the proportion of each changes. These studies indicate a dynamic and diverse autoantibody response not revealed by genetic studies and explain why similar overall autoantibody titers may give variable disease activity.

Specific immunoadsorption of pathogenic autoantibodies in pemphigus requires the entire ectodomains of desmogleins.

Pemphigus foliaceus (PF) and pemphigus vulgaris (PV) are life-threatening autoimmune blistering skin diseases. They are characterized by circulating autoantibodies which bind to the ectodomains of desmoglein (Dsg) 1 and Dsg3. These antibodies induce acantholysis in skin and mucous membranes. In severe cases of pemphigus, immunoadsorption is applied to remove total IgG from patient plasma using protein A or other ligands. To develop a specific adsorber for anti-Dsg antibodies, epitope mapping studies of Dsg1 and Dsg3 ectodomains were conducted. Dsg variants were expressed on the surface of HEK-293 cells and analysed for reactivity with pemphigus and control sera by indirect immunofluorescence technique. For Dsg1, a construct consisting of domain 1 directly fused to domain 5, seemed to be suitable for specific immunoadsorption of anti-Dsg1 antibodies. The recognized epitopes were mainly conformation-dependent. However, adsorption of pemphigus foliaceus IgG using this protein coupled to a Sepharose matrix did not completely remove pathogenicity from the sera, as proven by a keratinocyte dissociation assay. In contrast, full-length Dsg1 and Dsg3 ectodomains were able to specifically adsorb anti-Dsg antibodies and to efficiently eliminate pathogenicity. Therefore, the complete and correctly folded ectodomains of both desmogleins are required for therapeutic immunoadsorption.

Mapping of B cell epitopes on desmoglein 3 in pemphigus vulgaris patients by the use of overlapping peptides.

BACKGROUND: Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is a severe autoimmune blistering disease associated with autoantibodies to desmoglein 3 (Dsg 3), a transmembrane glycoprotein of the cadherin family. Previous studies mainly focused on the mapping of conformational epitopes of Dsg 3 using recombinant fragments of Dsg 3 and competition ELISA. OBJECTIVE: Here, we performed a mapping of linear B cell epitopes on Dsg 3 in PV patients by the use of overlapping synthetic peptides. METHODS: A set of 254 overlapping synthetic peptides of 14 amino acids length covering the entire Dsg 3 extracellular domain was generated. Sera of patients with active PV (n=10) and healthy volunteers (n=10) were tested for IgG reactivity with the 254 peptides by ELISA. Testing each peptide separately, 7 major antigenic sites were identified. In order to validate these reactivities, 7 corresponding peptides of 13-33 amino acids in length were generated and employed by ELISA. Additional sera of active PV patients (n=17) and healthy volunteers (n=20) were tested and the most reactive peptide was used to specifically purify anti-Dsg 3 antibodies from PV sera (n=3). RESULTS: The major autoantibody reactivity in PV sera was mapped to amino acids 333-356 within the EC3 domain. Purifying patients IgG using the identified peptide, however, failed to induce acantholysis in keratinocyte dissociation assay. CONCLUSION: We conclude that linear epitopes do not play a major pathogenic role in human PV.