A study of IgG antibodies to the ApoB protein in non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndrome

Abstract

Objectives. It has long been noted that there is an association of antibodies against oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) with cardiovascular disease, but the anti-oxLDL antibody has not been confirmed as a biomarker for prediction of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Apolipoprotein B (ApoB) may carry the epitopes for the immune response to oxLDL. The present work was thus undertaken to detect circulating antibodies to ApoB in non-ST segment elevation ACS (NSTE-ACS). Design. A total of 130 patients with NSTE-ACS and 201 control subjects were recruited. Six ApoB-derived peptipe antigens (Ag1–Ag6) were used to develop an in-house enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to examine circulating anti-ApoB IgG levels. Results. The anti-Ag1 IgG level was significantly higher in the patient group than the control group (P < 0.001) and the non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction appeared to be the main form of NSTE-ACS contributing to the increased levels of anti-Ag1 IgG (P < 0.001); there was no significant alteration in the levels of IgG to the other 5 antigens in NSTE-ACS. Conclusions. Circulating anti-ApoB IgG test may be useful for prediction of NSTE-ACS although further confirmation is needed in large-scale clinical studies.

Key words::

• antibody
• ApoB
• atherosclerosis
• Non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndrome

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the patients and healthy subjects for their support and participation. This study was supported by Presidential Foundation for Translational Medicine of the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.