• Janire Perurena-Prieto, Eduardo L Callejas-Moraga, María T Sanz-Martínez, Roger Colobran, Alfredo Guillén-Del-Castillo, and Carmen P Simeón-Aznar.
• Immunology Division, Vall d'Hebron University Hospital (HUVH), Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, Barcelona, Spain; Translational Immunology Group, Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, Spain.
• Med Clin (Barc). 2024 Apr 26; 162 (8): 370377370-377.

ObjectivesTo determine the diagnostic value of anti-interferon gamma inducible protein 16 (IFI16) autoantibodies in systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients negative for all tested SSc-specific autoantibodies (SSc-seronegative patients) and to evaluate the clinical significance of these autoantibodies, whether isolated or in the presence of anti-centromere autoantibodies (ACA).MethodsOverall, 58 SSc-seronegative and 66 ACA-positive patients were included in the study. All patients were tested for anti-IFI16 autoantibodies by an in-house direct ELISA. Associations between clinical parameters and anti-IFI16 autoantibodies were analysed.ResultsOverall, 17.2% of SSc-seronegative and 39.4% of ACA-positive patients were positive for anti-IFI16 autoantibodies. Anti-IFI16 autoantibodies were found only in patients within the limited cutaneous SSc (lcSSc) subset. A positive association between anti-IFI16 positivity and isolated pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) was found (odds ratio [OR]=5.07; p=0.014) even after adjusting for ACA status (OR=4.99; p=0.019). Anti-IFI16-positive patients were found to have poorer overall survival than negative patients (p=0.032). Cumulative survival rates at 10, 20 and 30 years were 96.9%, 92.5% and 68.7% for anti-IFI16-positive patients vs. 98.8%, 97.0% and 90.3% for anti-IFI16-negative-patients, respectively. Anti-IFI16-positive patients also had worse overall survival than anti-IFI16-negative patients after adjusting for ACA status in the multivariate Cox analysis (hazard ratio [HR]=3.21; p=0.043).ConclusionAnti-IFI16 autoantibodies were associated with isolated PAH and poorer overall survival. Anti-IFI16 autoantibodies could be used as a supplementary marker of lcSSc in SSc-seronegative patients and for identifying ACA-positive patients with worse clinical outcome.Copyright © 2023 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

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